Engineering topics
Publications and source records attributed to Tretiak, S..
Photoinduced electronic energy transfer in conjugated donor–acceptor systems is naturally accompanied by intramolecular vibrational energy redistributions accepting an excess of electronic energy.
Conjugated carbon nanorings exhibit unique photophysical properties that, combined with their tunable sizes and conformations, make them suitable for a variety of practical applications. These properties are intimately associated to their strained, bent and sterically hindered cyclic structures. Herein we perform a comparative analysis of the photoinduced dynamics in carbon nanorings composed of nine phenyl units([9]CPP) and nine naphthyl units ([9]CN) respectively. The sterically demanding naphthyl units lead to large dihedral angles between neighboring units. Nevertheless, the ultrafast electronic and vibrational energy relaxation and redistribution is found to be similar for both systems. We observe that vibronic couplings, introduced by nonadiabatic energy transfer between electronic excited states, ensure the intramolecular vibrational energy redistribution through specific vibrational modes. The comparative impact of the internal conversion process on the exciton spatial localization and intra-ring migration indicates that naphthyl units in [9]CN achieve more efficient but less dynamical self-trapping compared to that of phenyl units in [9]CPP. That is, during the photoinduced process, the exciton in [9]CN is more static and localized than the exciton in [9]CPP. Furthermore, the internal conversion processes take place through a specific set of middle- to high-frequency normal modes, which directly influence the spatial exciton redistribution during the internal conversion, self-trapping and intra-ring migration.
Photoexcitation of multichromophoric light harvesting molecules induces a number of intramolecular electronic energy relaxation and redistribution pathways that can ultimately lead to ultrafast exciton self-trapping on a single chromophore unit.
Controlling the regioregularity among the structural units of narrow bandgap conjugated polymer backbones has led to improvements in optoelectronic properties, for example in the mobilities observed in field effect transistor devices. To investigate how the regioregularity affects quantities relevant to hole transport, regioregular and regiorandom oligomers representative of polymeric structures were studied using density functional theory. Several structural and electronic characteristics of the oligomers were compared, including chain planarity, cation spin density, excess charges on molecular units and internal reorganizational energy. The main difference between the regioregular and regiorandom oligomers is found to be the conjugated backbone planarity, while the reorganizational energies calculated are quite similar across the molecular family. Lastly, this work constitutes the first step on understanding the complex interplay of atomistic changes and an oligomer backbone structure toward modeling the charge transport properties.
Using the DFT approach and optical spectroscopy, we provide a comprehensive analysis of IR excitation of water molecules confined in beryl nanopores.
Conjugated cycloparaphenylene rings have unique electronic properties being the smallest segments of carbon nanotubes. Their conjugated backbones support delocalized electronic excitations, which dynamics is strongly influenced by cyclic geometry. Here we present a comparative theoretical study of the electronic and vibrational energy relaxation and redistribution in photoexcited cycloparaphenylene carbon nanorings with inserted naphthalene, anthracene, and tetracene units using non-adiabatic excited-state molecular dynamics simulations. Calculated excited state structures reflect modifications of optical selection rules and appearance of low-energy electronic states localized on the acenes due to gradual departure from a perfect circular symmetry. After photoexcitation, an ultrafast electronic energy relaxation to the lowest excited state is observed on the time scale of hundreds of femtoseconds in all molecules studied. Concomitantly, the efficiency of the exciton trapping in the acene raises when moving from naphthalene to anthracene and to tetracene, being negligible in naphthalene, and ~60% and 70% in anthracene and tetracene within the first 500 fs after photoexcitation. Observed photoinduced dynamics is further analyzed in details using induced molecular distortions, delocatization properties of participating electronic states and non-adiabatic coupling strengths. Lastly, our results provide a number of insights into design of cyclic molecular systems for electronic and light-harvesting applications.
This study describes variational energy expressions and analytical excited state energy gradients for time-dependent self-consistent field methods with polarizable solvent effects. Linear response, vertical excitation, and state-specific solventmodels are examined. Enforcing a variational ground stateenergy expression in the state-specific model is found to reduce it to the vertical excitation model. Variational excited state energy expressions are then provided for the linear response and vertical excitation models and analytical gradients are formulated. Using semiempiricalmodel chemistry, the variational expressions are verified by numerical and analytical differentiation with respect to a static external electric field. Lastly, analytical gradients are further tested by performing microcanonical excited state molecular dynamics with p-nitroaniline.
In this study, an efficient method of treating solvent effects in excited state molecular dynamics (ESMD) is implemented and tested by exploring the solvatochromic effects in substituted p-phenylene vinylene oligomers. A continuum solvent model is used which has very little computational overhead. This allows simulations of ESMD with solvent effects on the scale of hundreds of picoseconds for systems of up to hundreds of atoms. At these time scales, solvatochromic shifts in fluoresence spectra can be described. Solvatochromic shifts in absorption and fluorescence spectra from ESMD are compared with time-dependent density functional theory calculations and experiments.
Currently, state-of-the-art photovoltaics use high-purity, large-area, wafer-scale single-crystalline semiconductors grown by sophisticated, high-temperature crystal growth processes. We show a solution-based hot-casting technique to grow continuous, pinhole-free thin films of organometallic perovskites with millimeter-scale crystalline grains. We fabricated planar solar cells with efficiencies approaching 18%, with little cell-to-cell variability. The devices show hysteresis-free photovoltaic response, which had been a fundamental bottleneck for the stable operation of perovskite devices. Characterization and modeling attribute the improved performance to reduced bulk defects and improved charge carrier mobility in large-grain devices. We anticipate that this technique will lead the field toward synthesis of wafer-scale crystalline perovskites, necessary for the fabrication of high-efficiency solar cells, and will be applicable to several other material systems plagued by polydispersity, defects, and grain boundary recombination in solution-processed thin films.
In this study, we implement and examine three excited state solvent models in time-dependent self-consistent field methods using a consistent formalism which unambiguously shows their relationship. These are the linear response, state specific, and vertical excitation solvent models. Their effects on energies calculated with the equivalent of COSMO/CIS/AM1 are given for a set of test molecules with varying excited state charge transfer character. The resulting solvent effects are explained qualitatively using a dipole approximation. It is shown that the fundamental differences between these solvent models are reflected by the character of the calculated excitations.
We use spectrally resolved magneto-electroluminescence (EL) measurements to study the energy dependence of hyperfine interactions between polaron and nuclear spins in organic light-emitting diodes. Using layered devices that generate bright exciplex emission, we show that the increase in EL emission intensity I due to small applied magnetic fields of order 100 mT is markedly larger at the high-energy blue end of the EL spectrum (ΔI/I ∼ 11%) than at the low-energy red end (∼4%). Concurrently, the widths of the magneto-EL curves increase monotonically from blue to red, revealing an increasing hyperfine coupling between polarons and nuclei and directly providing insight into the energy-dependent spatial extent and localization of polarons.
A new, pH dependent and water-soluble, conjugated oligomer (amino, trimethylammonium oligophenylene vinylene, ATAOPV) was synthesized with a quaternary ammonium salt and an aromatic amine at the two ends of a π-conjugated oligomer, thus creating a strong dipole across the molecule. A unique white light LED is successfully fabricated from a stimuli responsive organic molecule whose emission properties are dominated by the pH value of the solution through controlled intermolecular charge transfer.
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The development of efficient organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and organic photovoltaic cells requires control over the dynamics of spin sensitive excitations. Embedding heavy metal atoms in p-conjugated polymer chains enhances the spin-orbit coupling (SOC), and thus facilitates intersystem crossing (ISC) from the singlet to triplet manifolds. Here we use various nonlinear optical spectroscopies such as two-photon absorption and electroabsorption in conjunction with electronic structure calculations, for studying the energies, emission bands and ultrafast dynamics of spin photoexcitations in two newly synthesized p-conjugated polymers that contain intrachain platinum (Pt) atoms separated by one (Pt-1) or three (Pt-3) organic spacer units. The controllable SOC in these polymers leads to a record ISC time of ,,1 ps in Pt-1 and ,6 ps in Pt-3. The tunable ultrafast ISC rate modulates the intensity ratio of the phosphorescence and fluorescence emission bands, with potential applications for white OLEDs.
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