0000000000084268
AUTHOR
Giovanni Tommaseo
Observation of Very Narrow Linewidths in the Fluorescence Excitation Spectra of Single Conjugated Polymer Chains at 1.2 K
Fluorescence emission and excitation spectra of single poly[2-methoxy-5-(2'-ethyl-hexyloxy)-1,4-phenylene vinylene] polymer molecules embedded in poly(methylmethacrylate) have been recorded at 1.2 K. The ubiquitous spectral diffusion causes large variations in the spectral shape and apparent linewidth in the emission spectra. Nevertheless, we find very narrow (approximately 0.1 cm(-1)) purely electronic zero-phonon lines in the excitation spectra, which are 2 orders of magnitude smaller than previous estimates of the homogeneous linewidth. These results complement the molecular description of the low energy transitions in conjugated polymers.
Single-Molecule Spectroscopy of MEH-PPV Polymer Molecules in Different Host Matrices
Fluorescence emission and excitation spectra of single MEH-PPV molecules dispersed in three different host polymers (PMMA, PS, and Zeonex) have been recorded at 1.2 K. We observed only minor effects of the host matrix on the following parameters: the ratios of single-chromophoric to multichromophoric emission, the widths of the distributions of emission maxima, and the (generally very low) fraction of emission spectra with sharp zero-phonon lines. The differences are tentatively attributed to different conformations of MEH-PPV chains, subtle variations in local chromophore−matrix interactions, and/or different distributions of conjugation lengths of emitting chromophores, respectively. Usin…