Photocurrents of solar cells sensitized by aggregate-forming polyenes: Enhancement due to suppression of singlet–triplet annihilation by lowering of dye concentration or light intensity

Titania-based Grätzel-type solar cells were fabricated by the use of polyene dyes with various transition dipole moments. In the dye having the largest transition dipole among the samples, an aggregate was readily formed through dispersive interaction, and the photocurrent was increased when the dye concentration or the light intensity was lowered. This observation was ascribed to the suppression of the singlet–triplet annihilation reaction. In the dye having the smallest transition dipole, there was no sign of aggregate formation, and the photocurrent was decreased when the dye concentration or the light intensity was lowered.     

Time–dependent quantum theory I. An absorber in an intense radiation field

A function analogue of the formal operator theory of Goldberger and Watson for the decay of prepared states is developed with a modification that permits treatment of degenerate, interacting intermediate states. The theory is applied to the problem of absorption of radiation by an absorber in a very intense monochromatic beam. In particular, a simple two-level absorber in a resonant monochromatic beam of sufficient intensity to induce transitions from the ground state at a rate exceeding the spontaneous emission rate from the excited state, but still lying well below the optical frequency characterizing the transition, is investigated with the conclusion that the absorption cross-section falls off with the one-half power of the incident intensity. Conditions for the possible experimental verification of this result are presented.     

Bacterial photosynthesis begins with quantum-mechanical coherence

In the antenna system of photosynthetic bacteria, pigments form circular aggregates whose excitations are excitons with quantum-mechanical coherence extending over many pigments. These excitons play crucial roles in light harvesting, storage, and excitation-energy transfer (EET). EET takes place rapidly to and/or from optically forbidden exciton states, without total transition dipole, within the antenna system and to the reaction center. Such EETs cannot be rationalized by F?rster's formula, the traditional theory on EET, because it allows EET only between optically allowed states. The coherence in the excitons seems to prohibit rapid EET on this formula. The bacteria overcome this difficulty by circumventing the coherence, using the effects of the physical size of an aggregate that is larger than the shortest distance between pigments in the donor and pigments in the acceptor. The shortest-distance pair therein cannot detect whether the aggregate has a nonvanishing total transition dipole or not, since the pair see effectively only the transition dipole on the other pigment in themselves. The transition dipole facilitates rapid EET even to and/or from optically forbidden exciton states. Such EETs have enabled us to develop a general formula for the rate constant of EET. This is a formula in the weak-interaction limit, and so is F?rster's formula, but it correctly takes into account the above size effect.     

Pressure and laser intensity effects on kinetic rates in binary reactive gas mixtures

The irradiation of binary reactive gaseous mixture by a CW CO₂ laser at changing pressure of absorber or transparent reactant have been performed at over-all pressures of several hundreds torrs with a maximum laser intensity of 680 W.cm⁻². A radial thermodiffusion effect leading both to a transient depletion of absorber concentration in the irradiation zone and a decrease of the rate of decomposition have been shown. The maximum yield of decomposition which appears at a given intensity and pressure of absorber when the pressure of reactant is changed is general for the binary gas mixtures tested ; it may be understood in terms of laser energy deposited in the mixture and distributed between the absorber and reactant partners. A rate decomposition dependent on the square of incident laser intensity and proceeding from this distribution is also exhibited.     

EFFECT OF PHOTOSELECTION UPON SATURATION AND THE DICHROIC RATIO IN FLASH EXPERIMENTS UPON EFFECTIVELY IMMOBILIZED SYSTEMS

Abstract— Flash spectroscopy of photochemical or photobiological systems, such as bacteriorhodopsin in purple membrane, for which the chromophore transition dipole moment does not undergo complete reorientation during the time of the flash, is considered as a function of light intensity. Due to photoselection, saturation proceeds very slowly with increasing flash intensity and the linear dichroic ratio decays rapidly from a maximum of three at zero flash intensity. Simple formulae are derived to describe these effects under stringent assumptions. Calculations are also performed which relax the assumptions by taking into account (i) non-zero optical density, (ii) thermal decay of the photoproduct during the flash and (iii) non-zero angle y between the initial chromophore and its photoproduct. Agreement with experiments on bacteriorhodopsin in purple membranes is excellent.     

Monte Carlo simulations on mesophase formation using dipolar Gay-Berne model

We report the results of a Monte Carlo simulation of polar particles interacting via the Gay-Berne potential combining dipole-dipole interactions. Simulations were carried out on a system of 256 particles with either a zero dipole moment or longitudinal dipole moment located at the centre of the molecule. The system was found to spontaneously form nematic, smectic and crystal phases from an isotropic phase with a random configuration as temperature was decreased, irrespective of values of the dipole moment. The results do not give any indication of a net polarization even in the system with a strong dipole moment (μ* = 2.00). The transition temperature from the isotropic to nematic phase is not sensitive to the value of the dipole moment within the limits of statistical error, while the transition from the nematic to smectic phase depends on the strength of dipole moment. At lower temperatures forming the smectic or the crystal phase, the translational order along the director increases with increasing dipole moment. The dipolar interactions contribute to the long range ordering.     

Light absorption during alkali atom-noble gas atom interactions at thermal energies: a quantum dynamics treatment

The absorption of light during atomic collisions is treated by coupling electronic excitations, treated quantum mechanically, to the motion of the nuclei described within a short de Broglie wavelength approximation, using a density matrix approach. The time-dependent electric dipole of the system provides the intensity of light absorption in a treatment valid for transient phenomena, and the Fourier transform of time-dependent intensities gives absorption spectra that are very sensitive to details of the interaction potentials of excited diatomic states. We consider several sets of atomic expansion functions and atomic pseudopotentials, and introduce new parametrizations to provide light absorption spectra in good agreement with experimentally measured and ab initio calculated spectra. To this end, we describe the electronic excitation of the valence electron of excited alkali atoms in collisions with noble gas atoms with a procedure that combines l-dependent atomic pseudopotentials, including two- and three-body polarization terms, and a treatment of the dynamics based on the eikonal approximation of atomic motions and time-dependent molecular orbitals. We present results for the collision induced absorption spectra in the Li-He system at 720 K, which display both atomic and molecular transition intensities.     

Dielectric dispersion of polypeptide solutions. II. Helix-coil transition of poly(epsilon-carbobenzoxy-L-lysine) in m-cresol.

Dielectric dispersion measurements were made on dilute solutions of poly(epsilon-carbobenzoxy-L-lysine) in m-cresol; this system underwent a very sharp thermal helix-coil transition of inverse type around 30 degrees. Mean-square dipole moments "mu-2" and mean rotational relaxation times t were obtained as functions of molecular weight and helical fraction fN. It was found that "mu-2"-one-half varied almost linearly with fN-one-half over a substantial portion of the transition. The relaxation times corrected for solvent viscosity and temperature changed only slightly with fN except in the region of small fN, while, at fixed fN, they displayed molecular weight dependence characteristic of rod-like molecules. These results can be explained if the transition is assumed to proceed almost in all-or-none fashion. This assumption is consistent with the previous finding from statistical thermodynamic analyses that the transition of the system PCBL-m-cresol is highly cooperative, with standard deviation of population one-half being 0.0025 to 0.0027, where standard deviation of population is the cooperativity parameter. Application of Nagai's theory of "mu-2" for interrupted helices yielded the result that standard deviation of population-one-half was in the range 0.001 to 0.005 and the monomeric dipole moment in the helical conformation was 5.4 to 6.2 D.     

LED用Sr(1-1.5x)Mo0.8Si0.2O3.8:Eu3+x红色荧光粉的制备及其荧光性能

通过高温固相法合成了LED用红色荧光粉Sr(1-1.5x)Mo0.8Si0.2O3.8∶Eu3+x（x=0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4,0.5）。 通过XRD、激发光谱和发射光谱测试了材料的物相组成以及发光性能。 x=0.1样品的XRD谱与JCPDS 08-0482(SrMoO4)的标准卡片相同。 Eu3+代替晶格中Sr2+的位置成为发光中心。 随着Eu3+含量x的增加,593 nm处的5D0-7F1跃迁和614 nm处的5D0-7F2跃迁发射强度会相互转换：当x≤0.4时,以磁偶极5D0-7F1跃迁为主,发射橙色光;而当x=0.5时,以电偶极5D0-7F2跃迁发射为主,发射红光。 可能是过量掺杂的Eu3+离子,只能存在于晶格空位形成缺陷,无法占据SrMoO4中Sr2+的格位中,Eu3+在晶格中占据非对称中心的格位,导致电偶极跃迁变成允许跃迁,从而增加了5D0-7F2跃迁,减弱了5D0-7F1跃迁。 因此,可以通过调节激活剂的含量获得不同发光色的荧光粉。 Eu3+掺杂的硅钼酸锶体系,614 nm激发下,在368 nm处出现宽的基质吸收峰和467 nm处7F0-5D2的跃迁峰,且这2处的吸收峰在x=0.5时比x=0.4时强3倍左右。 材料能非常好的吸收368 nm波长的光,产生颜色可调的橙红色。 与近紫外光LED芯片匹配良好。     

Theoretical Study on Raman Spectra of Aqueous Peroxynitric Acid

Using density functional theory and polarizable continuum models, we study the Raman spectra of aqueous peroxynitric acid. The calculated results indicate that the solvent effect has significant influence on the electric dipole transition moments between the ground and excited electronic state and Raman polarizabilities. The theoretical Raman spectra agree well with the experimental results. From the experimental depolarization ratio, we can conclude that peroxynitric acid is not a plane molecule. We also find that the hydrogen bond can enhance IR intensity of hydroxyl group by several times.     

Synthesis, phase transition and photoluminescence studies on Eu-substituted double perovskites—A novel orange-red phosphor for solid-state lighting

Photoluminescence studies on Eu³⁺-doped double perovskites with the formula A₂CaWO₆ (A=Sr, Ba) revealed that the forced electric dipole (ED) transition is present when Eu³⁺ is substituted at the non-centrosymmetric Sr-site vis-a-vis substitution at the centrosymmetric Ca-site shows both ED and magnetic dipole (MD) transition. A series of novel orange-red-emitting phosphor compositions Sr_1.9−xBa_xEu_0.05Li_0.05CaWO₆ (x=0-1.9) have also been synthesized and characterized by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS) and photoluminescence. XRD results reveal a phase transition from monoclinic to pseudo-cubic structure for x?0.2. All the compositions show broad charge transfer band and orange-red (MD and ED) emission. However, the relative intensity of the MD and ED depends on the Ba content present in the host lattice. Select compositions in this system of compounds could find potential application as orange-red phosphors for white light generation using blue/near-UV GaN-based light-emitting diodes (LEDs).     

Influence of dimerization on the nematic-isotropic phase transition in strongly polar liquid crystals

A molecular theory of the nematic-isotropic phase transition is developed for the fluid composed of rod-like particles with large longitudinal dipoles. The equilibrium between the monomers and dimers with antiparallel dipoles is explicitly taken into account and the concentration of dimers is determined self-consistently together with the nematic order parameters. We show that for small central dipole moments the nematic-isotropic transition temperature increases with the increasing dipole. This is in accordance with the results of previous approaches. By contrast, for large values of the dipole the transition temperature decreases due to the growing concentration of dimers. This result enables one to explain the results of recent computer simulations that reveal a destabilization of the nematic phase in a system of hard rods with large central longitudinal dipoles. The temperature variation of the concentration of dimers is also analysed and the sign of the concentration discontinuity at the transition point is correlated with the qualitative influence of dimers on the transition temperature.     

Thermally activated escape rate for the Brownian motion of a fixed axis rotator in an asymmetrical double-well potential for all values of the dissipation

The Kramers theory of the escape rate of a Brownian particle from a potential well as extended by Mel'nikov and Meshkov is used to evaluate the relaxation times and the dynamic susceptibility for the rotational Brownian motion of fixed axis rotators in an asymmetric double-well potential. An expression for the escape rate valid for all values of the dissipation including the very low damping (VLD), very high damping (VHD), and crossover regimes is derived. It is shown that this expression provides a good asymptotic estimate of the inverse of the smallest nonvanishing eigenvalue lambda(1) of the underlying Fokker-Planck operator calculated by using the matrix-continued fraction method. For low barriers, where the Mel'nikov and Meshkov approach is not applicable, analytic equations for the correlation time tau( parallel) of the longitudinal dipole correlation function in the VLD and VHD limits are derived and a simple extrapolating equation valid for all values of the damping is proposed.     

BLUE LIGHT INDUCED PHOTOTRANSFORMATION OF PHYTOCHROME IN THE PRESENCE OF FLAVIN*

Abstract— Irradiation of the P_r form of phytochrome in the presence of flavin mononucleotide (FMN) which absorbs the actinic blue light yields P_fr at a rate greater than that in the absence of FMN. The actinic blue light absorbed by FMN enhances the phototransformation of P_r via the energy transfer from the former to the latter. On the other hand, the photoreversion of P_fr was inhibited by the presence of FMN when illuminated with blue light. The lack of photo-enhancement of the reversion of P_r, by blue light suggests that the P_fr chromophore (acceptor) transition dipole is virtually perpendicular to the FMN transition dipole, as the result of a chromophore reorientation in the P_r→P_fr phototransformation. The fact that blue light absorbed by flavin preferentially enhances the forward phototransformation of phytochrome while inhibiting the reversion may have an important implication in the high irradiance responses in plants in terms of a preferential accumulation of P_fr by blue light excitation.     

Numerical coupled Liouville approach: Application to second hyperpolarizability of molecular aggregate

In our previous study [Int. J. Quant. Chem., to appear], we have developed a novel numerical calculation scheme for a dynamics of quantum network for linear molecular aggregates under intense time‐dependent electric fields. In this approach, each molecule is assumed to be an electric dipole arranged linearly with an angle from the longitudinal axis, and the molecular interactions are taken into account by adding the radiations from these dipoles to the external electric fields. The effects of the radiations from all the dipoles involve the intermolecular distance, the speed of light, retarded polarization, and its first‐ and second‐order time derivatives at the position of each dipole. The quantum dynamics is performed by solving coupled Liouville equations composed of the Liouville equation for each dipole. In the present study, we develop a calculation approach of nonperturbative second hyperpolarizability γ in our novel approach and examine the γ of dimer models composed of two‐state molecules under the one‐photon near resonant intense laser fields. Similar phase transition‐like behavior in the field‐intensity dependence of the γ is observed. We also investigate the second hyperpolarizability spectra in the three‐photon resonant region for dimers composed of three‐state molecules, which mimic the electronic states of allyl cation. Contrary to the one‐photon resonant case, phase transition‐like behavior is not observed in the intensity dependence of γ in the three‐photon resonant region. ©1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 71: 295–306, 1999     

新型紫外线吸收剂1,4-二芳基-1,3-丁二炔类化合物的合成及其性能研究

本文以含有端基炔的芳硫醚为原料，碘苯二乙酯为氧化剂，氯化亚铜为催化剂，室温下反应30 min，合成了1，4-二（2-芳硫基苯基）-1，3-丁二炔化合物。通过¹HNMR、¹³CNMR等对其进行了结构表征，并研究了其光学性质，以及作为紫外线吸收剂在紫外光固化涂料中的应用。结果表明：该类化合物能够有效吸收270~360 nm的紫外光，且光降解程度小，并具有与树脂、单体相容性好、无气味等特点。同时，合成的目标化合物在光固化过程中不参与自由基体系的固化，且增强了涂料及固化涂层的光稳定性，有益于紫外光固化涂料的存储，是一类具有发展前景的紫外光吸收剂。     

Electrochromism and Solvatochromism

The position and the intensity of electronic bands are influenced by an electric field. Pronounced changes in the position of absorption bands are mainly due to the dipole moment of the molecule in the ground state and the change in the dipole moment during the excitation process, and pronounced changes in intensity are due to the field dependence of the transition moment, which can be described by the transition polarizability. The effect of an external electric field on the optical absorption (electrochromism) of suitable molecules can be used to determine the dipole moment in the ground state, the change in dipole moment during the excitation process, the direction of the transition moment of the electronic band, and certain components of the transition polarizability tensor. These data largely determine the strong solvatochromism (solvent-dependence of the position and intensity of electronic bands), which is observed in particular with molecules having large dipole moments. Smaller contributions to solvatochromism result from dispersion interactions, which predominate in the case of nonpolar molecules. The models developed have been experimentally checked and verified by a combination of electro-optical absorption measurements (influence of an external electric field on absorption) and investigation of the solvent-dependence of the electronic bands.     

Time-dependent quantum theory II. Absorption of light by dimers: Quantum theory and classical analogy

The quantum theory of light absorption by a pair of neighboring absorbers is developed in the point dipole approximation for the circumstance where excited states decay only by radiative damping. Comparison with classical local field theories, in which the monomers are represented by constant, frequency-dependent complex polarizabilities, shows that these local field theories are valid for non-harmonic absorbers only in the weak interaction limit, and only when there exist no states with both monomers simultaneously excited (e.g. one excited vibrationally, the other electronically) that are nearly degenerate with the single excitation states and also connected to them by appreciable transition moments. Failure of the local field theories is, thus, shown to be a consequence of the non-harmonic nature of real absorbers. Using a general relation between the level-shift function and complex polarizability, a recipe is formulated for calculating the complex polarizability and spectrum of a dimer.     

Dynamic light-scattering study of an ethylene–methacrylic acid copolymer and its salt

Dynamic light-scattering experiments were performed on an ethylene–methacrylic acid copolymer and its sodium salt. The in-phase ΔI′ and out-of-phase ΔI″ components of the light scattering were measured in a temperature range between 25 and 65°C for both samples. No transition is seen in this temperature interval for the acid, but a clear transition occurs around 40°C for the salt. This transition is associated with the softening point of the ionic domains present in the sample.     

Conformational identification of tryptamine embedded in superfluid helium droplets using electronic polarization spectroscopy

We report electronic polarization spectroscopy of tryptamine embedded in superfluid helium droplets. In a dc electric field, dependence of laser induced fluorescence from tryptamine on the polarization direction of the excitation laser is measured. Among the three observed major conformers A, D, and E, conformers D and E display preference for perpendicular excitation relative to the orientation field, while conformer A is insensitive to the polarization direction of the excitation laser. We attribute the behavior of conformer A to the fact that the angle between the permanent dipole and the transition dipole is close to the magic angle. Using a linear variation method, we can reproduce the polarization preference of the three conformers and determine the angle between the transition dipole and the permanent dipole. Since the side chain exerts small effect on the direction of the transition dipole in the frame of the indole chromophore, all three conformers have a common transition dipole more or less in the indole plane at an angle of approximately 60 degrees relative to the long axis of the chromophore. The orientation of the side chain, on the other hand, determines the size and direction of the permanent dipole, thereby affecting the angle between the permanent dipole and the transition dipole. For conformer D in the droplet, our results agree with the Anti(ph) structure, rather than the Anti(py) structure. Our work demonstrates that polarization spectroscopy is effective in conformational identification for molecules that contain a known chromophore. Although coupling of the electronic transition with the helium matrix is not negligible, it does not affect the direction of the transition dipole.