No Arabic abstract
The excited state dynamics in organic semiconductors plays an important role for many processes associated with light absorption and emission. We have studied the momentum dependence of the lowest singlet excitons in tetracene molecular solids, an archetype system for other organic semiconductors. Our results reveal an anisotropic bandstructure of these excitons with an energy minimum at finite momentum, i. e., a low energy exciton pocket. The existence of such low energy states might have important consequences for the photophysical behavior, also in view of applications in, e. g., organic solar cells. Our studies stress the importance of momentum dependent considerations in organic systems.
Polarized superradiant emission and exciton delocalization in tetracene single crystals are reported. Polarization-, time-, and temperature-resolved spectroscopy evidence the complete polarization of the zero-phonon line of the intrinsic tetracene emission from both the lower (F state) and the upper (thermally activated) Davydov excitons. The superradiance of the F emission is substantiated by a nearly linear decrease of the radiative lifetime with temperature, being fifteen times shorter at 30 K compared to the isolated molecule, with an exciton delocalization of about 40 molecules.
Two-dimensional molecular crystals have been beyond the reach of systematic investigation because of the lack or instability of their well-defined forms. Here, we demonstrate drastically enhanced photostability and Davydov splitting in single and few-layer tetracene (Tc) crystals sandwiched between inorganic 2D crystals of graphene or hexagonal BN. Molecular orientation and long-range order mapped with polarized wide-field photoluminescence imaging and optical second-harmonic generation revealed high crystallinity of the 2D Tc and its distinctive orientational registry with the 2D inorganic crystals, which were also verified with first-principles calculations. The reduced dielectric screening in 2D space was manifested by enlarged Davydov splitting and attenuated vibronic sidebands in the excitonic absorption and emission of monolayer Tc crystals. Photostable 2D molecular crystals and their size effects will lead to novel photophysical principles and photonic applications.
Measuring the Doppler broadening of the positron annihilation radiation or the angular correlation between the two annihilation gamma quanta reflects the momentum distribution of electrons seen by positrons in the material.Vacancy-type defects in solids localize positrons and the measured spectra are sensitive to the detailed chemical and geometric environments of the defects. However, the measured information is indirect and when using it in defect identification comparisons with theoretically predicted spectra is indispensable. In this article we present a computational scheme for calculating momentum distributions of electron-positron pairs annihilating in solids. Valence electron states and their interaction with ion cores are described using the all-electron projector augmented-wave method, and atomic orbitals are used to describe the core states. We apply our numerical scheme to selected systems and compare three different enhancement (electron-positron correlation) schemes previously used in the calculation of momentum distributions of annihilating electron-positron pairs within the density-functional theory. We show that the use of a state-dependent enhancement scheme leads to better results than a position-dependent enhancement factor in the case of ratios of Doppler spectra between different systems. Further, we demonstrate the applicability of our scheme for studying vacancy-type defects in metals and semiconductors. Especially we study the effect of forces due to a positron localized at a vacancy-type defect on the ionic relaxations.
Inorganic-organic interfaces are important for enhancing the power conversion efficiency of silicon-based solar cells through singlet exciton fission (SF). We elucidated the structure of the first monolayers of tetracene (Tc), a SF molecule, on hydrogen-passivated Si(111) [H-Si(111)] and hydrogenated amorphous Si (a-Si:H) by combining near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) experiments with density functional theory (DFT) calculations. For samples grown at or below substrate temperatures of 265 K, the resulting ultrathin Tc films are dominated by almost upright-standing molecules. The molecular arrangement is very similar to the Tc bulk phase, with only slightly higher average angle between the conjugated molecular plane normal and the surface normal ($alpha$) around 77{deg}. Judging from carbon K-edge X-ray absorption spectra, the orientation of the Tc molecules are almost identical when grown on H-Si(111) and a-Si:H substrates as well as for (sub)mono- to several-monolayer coverages. Annealing to room temperature, however, changes the film structure towards a smaller $alpha$ of about 63{deg}. A detailed DFT-assisted analysis suggests that this structural transition is correlated with a lower packing density and requires a well-chosen amount of thermal energy. Therefore, we attribute the resulting structure to a distinct monolayer configuration that features less inclined, but still well-ordered molecules. The larger overlap with the substrate wavefunctions makes this arrangement attractive for an optimized interfacial electron transfer in SF-assisted silicon solar cells.
We explore whether the topology of energy landscapes in chemical systems obeys any rules and what these rules are. To answer this and related questions we use several tools: (i)Reduced energy surface and its density of states, (ii) descriptor of structure called fingerprint function, which can be represented as a one-dimensional function or a vector in abstract multidimensional space, (iii) definition of a distance between two structures enabling quantification of energy landscapes, (iv) definition of a degree of order of a structure, and (v) definitions of the quasi-entropy quantifying structural diversity. Our approach can be used for rationalizing large databases of crystal structures and for tuning computational algorithms for structure prediction. It enables quantitative and intuitive representations of energy landscapes and reappraisal of some of the traditional chemical notions and rules. Our analysis confirms the expectations that low-energy minima are clustered in compact regions of configuration space (funnels) and that chemical systems tend to have very few funnels, sometimes only one. This analysis can be applied to the physical properties of solids, opening new ways of discovering structure-property relations. We quantitatively demonstrate that crystals tend to adopt one of the few simplest structures consistent with their chemistry, providing a thermodynamic justification of Paulings fifth rule.