In Chapter 1, we discussed how light interacts with a molecule and thereby creates an excited state. The part of the molecule that absorbs light is termed a chromophore. A chromophore may comprise (i) the π-conjugated core of a molecule without any non-conjugated side chains, or (ii) an electronically coherent part in a π-conjugated polymer chain. In this chapter, we explore how the nature of the excited state in a chromophore is affected by the chromophore's environment and the way in which the chromophores are arranged with respect to each other. The species formed upon excitation of a neutral chromophore is commonly referred to as neutral excitation. The term charged excitation is associated with the chromophore in a charged state and shall be discussed in Section 2.4.
Excited Molecules from the Gas Phase to the Amorphous FilmA good starting point to understand excited states in organic semiconductors is to follow the changes that are associated with having a single excited molecule in different environments. In order to correctly interpret spectra it is essential to know how and why the absorption and luminescence spectra of molecules change when going from the bare molecule, present in the gas phase, to the molecule embedded in an environment, as given in the condensed phase. The starting point is therefore given by the gas phase spectra. Absorption and fluorescence (FL) spectra of aromatic molecules used in optoelectronic devices are not routinely measured in the gas phase. We shall consider the tetracene molecule as a model object because this molecule has been investigated in the gas phase, in solid and liquid solution, in an amorphous as well as in a crystalline phase. Moreover, in bulk films and in the crystal, singlet excitations of tetracene and its derivatives can undergo fission into pair of triplets states, which will turn out to be an important process in organic solar cells (OSCs) [1-3].
Effects due to PolarizationFirst, let us consider how the absorption and FL spectra of the bare, isolated molecule evolve when it becomes surrounded by inert noble gas atoms. The prototypical experiment to study this involves the use of supersonic expansion beams [4]. Pioneering work has been carried out in the 1980s by the Jortner group in Tel Aviv [5]. The basic setup of the experiment is shown in Figure 2.1a. Two adjacent chambers are connected by a small outlet, for instance, an outlet of 150 μm diameter. One chamber is filled with an inert gas such as argon and kept at a certain stagnation pressure, while the second chamber is kept under a dynamic vacuum. As the argon escapes through the outlet from the full into the empty chamber, it forms a supersonic expanding beam. Typically, one investigates not pure argon but rather a mixture formed by the carrier gas argon and the vapor of the molecule of interest. The Jortner group conducted the experiment by placing tetracene into the argon-filled sample chamber and heating it to 220 ∘ C where tetracene has a vapor pressure of about 0.1 mbar. They