We report on the optical and structural characterization of rubrene polycrystalline films fabricated from vacuum deposition with various substrate temperatures (Tsub). Depending on Tsub, the role of twisted and planar rubrene conformational isomers on the properties of rubrene films is focused. The temperature (T)-dependent inverse optical transmission (IOT) and photoluminescence (PL) spectra were performed on these rubrene films. The origins of these IOT and PL peaks are explained in terms of the features from twisted and planar rubrene molecules and of the band characteristics from rubrene molecular solid films. Here, two rarely reported weak-peaks at 2.431 and 2.605 eV were observed from IOT spectra, which are associated with planar rubrene. Besides, the T-dependence of optical bandgap deduced from IOT spectra is discussed with respect to Tsub. Together with IOT and PL spectra, for Tsub > 170 °C, the changes in surface morphology and unit cell volume were observed for the first time, and are attributed to the isomeric transformation from twisted to planar rubrenes during the deposition processes. Furthermore, a unified schematic diagram in terms of Frenkel exciton recombination is suggested to explain the origins of the dominant PL peaks performed on these rubrene films at 15 K.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.