No Arabic abstract
The rate of energy transfer in donor-acceptor systems can be manipulated via the common interaction with the confined electromagnetic modes of a micro-cavity. We analyze the competition between the near-field short range dipole-dipole energy exchange processes and the cavity mediated long-range interactions in a simplified model consisting of effective two-level quantum emitters that could be relevant for molecules in experiments under cryogenic conditions. We find that free-space collective incoherent interactions, typically associated with sub- and superradiance, can modify the traditional resonant energy transfer scaling with distance. The same holds true for cavity-mediated collective incoherent interactions in a weak-coupling but strong-cooperativity regime. In the strong coupling regime, we elucidate the effect of pumping into cavity polaritons and analytically identify an optimal energy flow regime characterized by equal donor/acceptor Hopfield coefficients in the middle polariton. Finally we quantify the build-up of quantum correlations in the donor-acceptor system via the two-qubit concurrence as a measure of entanglement.
Electronic and optical properties of doped organic semiconductors are dominated by local interactions between donor and acceptor molecules. However, when such systems are in crystalline form, long-range order competes against short-range couplings. In a first-principles study on three experimentally resolved bulk structures of quaterthiophene doped by (fluorinated) tetracyanoquinodimethane, we demonstrate the crucial role of long-range interactions in donor/acceptor co-crystals. The band structures of the investigated materials exhibit direct band-gaps decreasing in size with increasing amount of F atoms in the acceptors. The valence-band maximum and conduction-band minimum are found at the Brillouin zone boundary and the corresponding wave-functions are segregated on donor and acceptor molecules, respectively. With the aid of a tight-binding model, we rationalize that the mechanisms responsible for these behaviors, which are ubiquitous in donor/acceptor co-crystals, are driven by long-range interactions. The optical response of the analyzed co-crystals is highly anisotropic. The absorption onset is dominated by an intense resonance corresponding to a charge-transfer excitation. Long-range interactions are again responsible for this behavior, which enhances the efficiency of the co-crystals for photo-induced charge separation and transport. In addition to this result, which has important implications in the rational design of organic materials for opto-electronics, our study clarifies that cluster models, accounting only for local interactions, cannot capture the relevant impact of long-range order in donor/acceptor co-crystals.
We present a novel {em ab initio} approach for computing intramolecular charge and energy transfer rates based upon a projection operator scheme that parses out specific internal nuclear motions that accompany the electronic transition. Our approach concentrates the coupling between the electronic and nuclear degrees of freedom into a small number of reduced harmonic modes that can be written as linear combinations of the vibrational normal modes of the molecular system about a given electronic minima. Using a time-convolutionless master-equation approach, parameterized by accurate quantum-chemical methods, we benchmark the approach against experimental results and predictions from Marcus theory for triplet energy transfer for a series of donor-bridge-acceptor systems. We find that using only a single reduced mode--termed the primary mode, one obtains an accurate evaluation of the golden-rule rate constant and insight into the nuclear motions responsible for coupling the initial and final electronic states. We demonstrate the utility of the approach by computing the inelastic electronic transition rates in a model donor-bridge-acceptor complex that has been experimentally shown that its exciton transfer pathway can be radically modified by mode-specific infrared excitation of its vibrational mode.
To identify reliable molecular design principles for energy level tuning in donor/acceptor conjugated polymers (CPs), we studied the governing factors by means of ab initio calculations based on density-functional theory (DFT). We investigated a series of CPs in which we independently and systematically varied the electron withdrawing power of the acceptor unit and the electron donating power of the donor unit, while maintaining the same conjugated chain conformation. We observed that the introduction of a stronger acceptor unit, while keeping the same donor unit in the CP, lowers the LUMO level, but leaves the HOMO level almost unchanged. Conversely, enhancing the strength of the donor unit for the same acceptor unit raises the HOMO level, while maintaining the LUMO level. We identified strong correlations between the frontier orbital energy levels and the degree of orbital localization, which depends on the electron donating or withdrawing power of the molecular groups carrying the orbitals. Moreover, the HOMO/LUMO gap of the CP is directly proportional to the charge transfer between donating and accepting units, which provides a robust design criterion for CPs.
Carbene-metal-amides (CMAs) are a promising family of donor-bridge-acceptor molecular charge-transfer emitters for organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). Here a universal approach is introduced to tune the energy of their charge-transfer emission. A shift of up to 210 meV is achievable in the solid state via dilution in a polar host matrix. The origin of this shift has two components: constraint of thermally activated triplet diffusion, and electrostatic interactions between the guest molecules and the polar host. This allows the emission of mid-green CMA archetypes to be blue shifted without chemical modifications. Monte-Carlo simulations based on a Marcus-type transfer integral successfully reproduce the concentration- and temperature-dependent triplet diffusion process, and reveal a substantial shift in the ensemble density of states in polar hosts. In gold-bridged CMAs this substantial shift does not lead to a significant change in luminescence lifetime, thermal activation energy, reorganisation energy or intersystem crossing rate. These discoveries thus offer new experimental and theoretical insight in to the coupling between the singlet and triplet manifolds in these materials. Similar emission tuning can be achieved in related materials where chemical modification is used to modify the charge-transfer energy.
Despite many advances towards improving the stability of organic photovoltaic devices, environmental degradation under ambient conditions remains a challenging obstacle for future application. Particularly conventional systems employing fullerene derivatives are prone to oxidise under illumination, limiting their applicability. Herein, we report on the environmental stability of the small molecule donor DRCN5T together with the fullerene acceptor PC70BM. We find that this system exhibits exceptional device stability, mainly due to almost constant short-circuit current. By employing ultrafast femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopy we attribute this remarkable stability to two separate mechanisms: 1) DRCN5T exhibits high intrinsic resistance towards external factors, showing no signs of deterioration. 2) The highly sensitive PC70BM is stabilised against degradation by the presence of DRCN5T through ultrafast long-range energy transfer to the donor, rapidly quenching the fullerene excited states which are otherwise precursors for chemical oxidation. We propose that this photoprotective mechanism be utilised to improve the device stability of other systems, including non-fullerene acceptors and ternary blends.