Prof Laura Herz FRS

Abstract:

Time-integrated and femtosecond time-resolved photoluminescence spectroscopy has been used to study the dynamic emission polarization anisotropy for thin films of a conjugated polymer whose chains had been aligned through a nanoimprinting technique. The results indicate a high degree of chain alignment, with the presence of a small fraction of unaligned chain domains in film regions far from the imprinted surface. The time-averaged emission from aligned domains is found to be slightly shifted to higher photon energies compared to that from more disordered film regions. This effect is attributed to a subtly different chain packing geometry in the more aligned regions of the film, which leads to a reduced exciton diffusivity and inhibits energetic relaxation of the exciton in the inhomogeneously broadened density of states. While for an unaligned reference film, exciton migration results in a nearly complete depolarization of the emission over the first 300 ps, for the aligned films, interchain exciton hopping from unaligned to aligned domains is found to increase the anisotropy over the same time scale. In addition, excitons generated in aligned film domains were found to be slightly more susceptible to nonradiative quenching effects than those in disordered regions deeper inside the film, suggesting a marginally higher defect density near the nanoimprinted surface of the aligned film. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We have used terahertz time-domain spectroscopy to investigate photoinduced charge generation in conjugated polymer field-effect transistors. Our measurements show that excitons dissociate in the accumulation layer under the application of a gate voltage, with a quantum efficiency of ∼0.1 for an average gate field of ∼1× 108 V m-1. The transistor history is found to affect the exciton dissociation efficiency, which decreases as holes are increasingly trapped in the accumulation layer. The quantum efficiency of charge formation from excitons is compared with the two contrasting models proposed by Onsager and Arkhipov based on the assumption that field-induced exciton dissociation is assisted by the Brownian diffusive motion or an initial excess energy supplied by excited vibrational modes, respectively. © 2008 The American Physical Society.

Abstract:

We present a simulation of exciton dynamics in supramolecular assemblies of an oligo-p-phenylenevinylene derivative monofunctionalised with a quadruple hydrogen-bonding group (MOPV). MOPV molecules form helical stacks in dodecane solution through solvophobic and π-π interactions with thermotropic reversibility. We apply a model of incoherent excitation hopping using a Monte Carlo scheme to extract microscopic physical quantities relevant to energy diffusion and bimolecular annihilation processes within isolated nanostructures. We compare the simulation to ultrafast spectroscopic data, namely photoinduced absorption transients at various excitation fluences, their polarization anisotropy, and the dynamic photoluminescence red-shift. We observe that energy diffusion and bimolecular annihilation processes can be described with the same microscopic model based on a Förster-like model that takes into account the spatial extent of the excited state; these two processes are interconnected via the same underlying physics. We extract a high diffusion coefficient (∼0.08 cm2 s-1) over the first few picoseconds following excitation, which plays an important role in dictating the bimolecular annihilation dynamics. © 2007 American Chemical Society.