Resonance Raman Spectroscopy and Imaging of Franck-Condon Vibrational Activity and Morphology in Conjugated Polymers for Solar Cells

Vibrational reorganization influences photophysical outcomes in conjugated polymers used as active materials for optoelectronic devices. Excited state geometric rearrangements typically involve many displaced vibrations, yet most materials design schemes rely solely on pure electronic models with limited predictive capability. Although the coupling of vibrational motions to electronic processes occurs over a broad range of time scales, resolving structural displacements immediately following photon absorption can be particularly insightful for understanding the intrinsic stabilities of excited states. These Franck-Condon vibrational relaxation processes occur on time scales of <1 ps in polymers and mainly involve high-frequency skeletal motions. Establishing correlations between Franck-Condon vibrational reorganization and steady-state material properties could generate new avenues for informing materials design, which is especially important in the fast-paced field of organic photovoltaics (OPV) where seemingly elegant strategies often fail but molecular-level insights are usually lacking. The goal of this Account is to highlight relationships between molecular structure, packing, and vibrational reorganization in OPV systems, such as blends of conjugated polymers with fullerenes. Resonance Raman spectroscopy (RRS) is a sensitive probe of Franck-Condon activity in OPV materials, and signals are bolstered by large resonance enhancements and low backgrounds from quantitative fluorescence quenching. Our group has undertaken extensive RRS investigations of heterogeneous OPV materials in functioning device environments to uncover new insights of the multidimensional excited state potential energy landscape and fluctuations with local morphology. Time-dependent quantum mechanical approaches facilitate this effort by providing an intuitive theoretical framework to access dynamical perspectives of Raman transitions. Moreover, dynamics regimes of Franck-Condon excited state structural evolution can be selected simply by tuning excitation energies. This excitation detuning approach also reveals structurally and electronically distinct conformers with unique Franck-Condon signatures typically concealed under inhomogeneously broadened absorption line shapes. Interestingly, long and rich progressions of overtone and combination transitions-rare for large molecules with multiple displaced modes-are frequently resolved that exhibit strong sensitivity to the local chromophore environment. These harmonic features encode useful dynamics information by serving as internal "clocks" of Franck-Condon vibrational activity in addition to enabling quantitative estimates of mode-specific displacements. RRS attributes may be further exploited to perform noninvasive imaging of functioning OPV devices in concert with variable frequency electrical imaging probes. This approach generates direct spatial correlations between morphology-dependent Franck-Condon vibrational activity and material performance metrics (e.g., photocurrent generation) on submicrometer size scales.

Near-infrared 2Eg → 4A2g and visible LMCT luminescence from a molecular bis-(tris(carbene)borate) manganese(IV) complex

The molecular bis-(tris(carbene)borate) manganese(IV) complex [{PhB(MeIm)3}2Mn](OTf)2 shows 2Eg → 4A2g luminescence at 828 nm in the solid state at 85 K; this wavelength is longer by approximately 100 nm than the wavelengths typically observed for manganese(IV) and chromium(III) doped solids and for molecular chromium(III) complexes. Weak luminescence is also observed from a LMCT excited state with an absorption maximum at 500 nm. This represents the first molecular manganese(IV) compound for which luminescence has been reported.

Intervalence charge transfer luminescence: interplay between anomalous and 5d - 4f emissions in Yb-doped fluorite-type crystals

In this paper, we report the existence of intervalence charge transfer (IVCT) luminescence in Yb-doped fluorite-type crystals associated with Yb(2+)-Yb(3+) mixed valence pairs. By means of embedded cluster, wave function theory ab initio calculations, we show that the widely studied, very broad band, anomalous emission of Yb(2+)-doped CaF2 and SrF2, usually associated with impurity-trapped excitons, is, rather, an IVCT luminescence associated with Yb(2+)-Yb(3+) mixed valence pairs. The IVCT luminescence is very efficiently excited by a two-photon upconversion mechanism where each photon provokes the same strong 4f(14)-1A1g→ 4f(13)((2)F7/2)5deg-1T1u absorption in the Yb(2+) part of the pair: the first one, from the pair ground state; the second one, from an excited state of the pair whose Yb(3+) moiety is in the higher 4f(13)((2)F5/2) multiplet. The Yb(2+)-Yb(3+) → Yb(3+)-Yb(2+) IVCT emission consists of an Yb(2+) 5deg → Yb(3+) 4f7/2 charge transfer accompanied by a 4f7/2 → 4f5/2 deexcitation within the Yb(2+) 4f(13) subshell: [(2)F5/25deg,(2)F7/2] → [(2)F7/2,4f(14)]. The IVCT vertical transition leaves the oxidized and reduced moieties of the pair after electron transfer very far from their equilibrium structures; this explains the unexpectedly large band width of the emission band and its low peak energy, because the large reorganization energies are subtracted from the normal emission. The IVCT energy diagrams resulting from the quantum mechanical calculations explain the different luminescent properties of Yb-doped CaF2, SrF2, BaF2, and SrCl2: the presence of IVCT luminescence in Yb-doped CaF2 and SrF2; its coexistence with regular 5d-4f emission in SrF2; its absence in BaF2 and SrCl2; the quenching of all emissions in BaF2; and the presence of additional 5d-4f emissions in SrCl2 which are absent in SrF2. They also allow to interpret and reproduce recent experiments on transient photoluminescence enhancement in Yb(2+)-doped CaF2 and SrF2, the appearance of Yb(2+) 4f-5d absorption bands in the excitation spectra of the IR Yb(3+) emission in partly reduced CaF2:Yb(3+) samples, and to identify the broadband observed in the excitation spectrum of the so far called anomalous emission of SrF2:Yb(2+) as an IVCT absorption, which corresponds to an Yb(2+) 4f5/2 → Yb(3+) 4f7/2 electron transfer.

Coupled states in dinitrofluorene: relationships between ground state and excited state mixed valence

The electronic absorption spectrum of 9,9-dimethyl-2,7-dinitrofluorene radical anion in HMPA displays both a NIR intervalence charge transfer and a visible excited state mixed valence transition. These transitions contain a similar vibronic progression resulting from molecular orbitals that are common to both transitions. Vibrational frequency and intensity data are acquired from the resonance Raman spectrum and used to calculate a best fit for the absorption spectrum. The normal coordinate distortions are analyzed in terms of the electronic changes for both transitions to explain their similarity. The Raman scattering intensity decreases at lower excitation wavelength as a result of Raman de-enhancement caused by interference between neighboring excited states.

Ab initio theoretical study on the 4f(2) and 4f5d electronic manifolds of cubic defects in CaF2:Pr3+

Wave function-based embedded cluster ab initio calculations have been carried out in order to study the 4f(2) and 4f5d energy levels of the cubic substitutional defect of Pr-doped CaF2. The 4f(2) → 4f5d absorption spectrum and 4f5d → 4f(2) emission spectrum have been calculated. The 4f(2 1)S0 level is found to be immersed in the 4f5d(eg) manifold, so that no quantum cutting from (1)S0 can occur and only strong 4f5d(eg) → 4f(2) emission is predicted, which supports previous assumptions made in order to explain results in CaF2:Pr(3+). The details of the 4f(2) → 4f5d(eg) and 4f(2) → 4f5d(t2g) bands of the absorption spectrum are interpreted and assignments are made. The lowest level of the 4f5d(eg) configuration is found to have 80% of singlet character, in opposition to Hund's Rules, and the issue is discussed in detail. The comparison between the experimental 4f5d(eg) → 4f(2) high resolution emission spectrum of the cubic site of CaF2:Pr(3+) and the calculated emission spectra from the two lowest 4f5d(eg) states 1T2u((1)T2u) and 1Eu(1(3)T2u) suggests the possibility that the experimental emission of the cubic Pr defect of CaF2:Pr(3+) is in fact a multiple emission.

Observation of the missing mode effect in a poly-phenylenevinylene derivative: effect of solvent, chain packing, and composition

Optical emission spectra of poly[2-methoxy-5-[3('),7(')-dimethyloctyloxy)-1,4-phenylenevinylene] (MDMO-PPV) in dilute solutions exhibit a vibronic progression interval (∼1225 cm(-1)) that does not correspond to any ground state vibrational mode frequency. This phenomenon is assigned as the missing mode effect (MIME) in which five key displaced polymer backbone vibrational modes in the range of 800-1600 cm(-1) contribute to the MIME interval. Emission spectra are calculated by analytically solving the time-dependent Schrödinger equation using estimates of mode-specific vibrational displacements determined independently from preresonance Raman intensities. Emission spectra of MDMO-PPV thin films and nanoparticles are measured and lineshapes show an increase of the MIME frequency to ∼1340 cm(-1) in addition to changes in vibronic intensity distributions and energies. Composite blend thin films consisting of MDMO-PPV and a fullerene derivative (1:1 w/w) exhibit a substantially larger MIME interval (∼1450 cm(-1)) that arises from an increase in polymer chain planarity. This structural change is most apparent from large decreases of the excited state displacement of an out-of-plane C-H bending mode (961 cm(-1)) that becomes forbidden in the planar structure.

Participation of co-ligands in electronic transitions of platinum(II) diazabutadiene complexes

The low-lying electronic transitions and photochemical reactions of a series of [((i)Pr-DAB)Pt(R)(2)] (where the co-ligand R = CH(3), CD(3), adme, neop, neoSi, C(triple bond)C(t)Bu, C(triple bond)CPh, Ph, Mes) compounds were studied using both experimental (electronic absorption and resonance Raman spectroscopy) and theoretical (density functional theory, DFT) techniques. The high-lying filled orbitals were revealed to have a significant co-ligand contribution in the case of alkyl complexes, while this contribution is predominant for the complexes with unsaturated co-ligands. Because the electronic transition removes electron density from the sigma(Pt-C) bond in the former complexes, it is best described as a metal-to-ligand charge transfer transition (MLCT) with partial sigma-bond-to-ligand charge transfer (SBLCT) character. Because the sigma(Pt-C) orbital is not involved in the HOMOs of the latter complexes, the low-lying transitions were characterized as mixed MLCT/L'LCT, where L'LCT stands for ligand-to-ligand charge transfer from the pi system of the unsaturated co-ligand to the pi((i)Pr-DAB) orbital. The alkyl complexes are photoreactive on visible light irradiation with Pt-C bond homolysis as the primary step. The efficiency of the photoreaction increases with increasing sigma donor strength of the alkyl ligand. The absolute quantum yield is quite low. The other complexes are virtually photostable, except when irradiated at relatively high energies.