STRUCTURE AND EXCITED-STATE DYNAMICS OF PERYLENE : ULTRAHIGH-RESOLUTION SPECTROSCOPY AND AB INITIO CALCULATION
Loading...
Date
2010
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ohio State University
Abstract
Perylene is one of the prototypical compact polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The fluorescence quantum yield in the $S_1$ state is considerably high. It is strange because radiationless transitions such as intersystem crossing (ISC) to the triplet state and internal conversion (IC) to the $S_0$ state are expected to be fast due to high density of coupling levels. We observed the ultrahigh-resolution spectrum of the $S_1 \;^1B_{2u}$ $\leftarrow$ $S_0 \;^1A_g$ transition of jet-cooled perylene, and determined the rotational constants in these two states. , {\em J. Mol. Spectrosc.}, {\bf 260}, 72 (2010)} The inertial defect is positive and small, so that the molecule is considered to be planar with $D_{2h}$ symmetry. The obtained rotational constants of the $S_1$ state is very similar to those of the $S_0$ state. It indicates that the structural change upon electronic transition is very small. We performed $ab$ $initio$ calculation, and the calculated geometrical molecular structure and vibrational energies were in good coincidence with the experimental results. The observed high fluorescence quantum yield shows that radiationless transitions are all slow in the $S_1$ state of perylene. The slow IC can be attributed to the small scale of its structural change. We also observed the ultrahigh-resolution spectrum in the magnetic field of 0.5 Tesla. Zeeman broadening was very small, indicating that the singlet-triplet interaction is very weak, and that ISC is minor in the $S_1$ state. In specific vibronic levels, the fluorescence lifetimes are remarkably short. We conclude that the main process is IC, and the accepting mode is in-plane ($a_g$) deformation vibration in the $S_1$ state.
Description
Author Institution: Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto; 606-8502, Japan