Electronic structure and nonlinear optical properties of push–pull conjugated molecules

We present a review of ab initio calculations we recently performed on organic molecules presenting promising quadratic nonlinear optical properties. These molecules constitute so-called push–pull conjugated compounds in which a conjugated segment is capped at one end by an acceptor group and at the other end by a donor group. We foucs on three series of systems: (i) p-amino-p′-nitrodiphenylacetylenes for which “unusual” distorsion patterns have been recently reported; (ii) benzodithiapolyenals, which present among the largest second-order polarizabilities ever measured; and (iii) 2-methylene-2H-pyrrole derivatives. Our results are found to provide a detailed understanding of the avilable experimental data.     

Electronic structure of long molecules with conjugated bonds

The -electron system in a long molecule of the polyene type was calculated according to the Hartree-Fock self-consistent field method in which electrons with different spins are located on different molecular orbitals. The ground state of the -electron system in a long molecule is found to be antiferromagnetic and possesses a gap in the one-particle excitation spectrum. The calculated value of the first -electron transition as a function of the number of atoms in the polyene chain is in good agreement with experiment.     

Electronic structure and hyperpolarizability of some conjugated molecules in excited states

For the examples of aromatic and antiaromatic five-membered heterocycles, the static electronic polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities are determined in the ground and first singlet- and triplet-excited electronic states. The theoretical calculations are carried out in the SOS formalism and the correlation effects are taken into account using all mono- and biexcited configuration in the PPP approximation. It is shown that the singlet excitation of the molecules for the antiaromatic case is connected to an significant decrease of both polarizabilities and hyperpolarizabilities. Their values are discussed in terms of the index of average bond-order alternation for the ground and excited states and the localization of the electronic transitions in the molecules. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

The calculation of excited state and ground state properties of conjugated heteroatomic molecules using a single SCF-LCAO-CI method including σ-polarization

An SCF-π method including variable π-electronegativity and σ-polarization is described and applied to the calculation of electronic transitions and ionization potentials of a large variety of heteroatomic molecules containing boron, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, chlorine, and sulfur. The necessary atomic parameters are the Slater effective nuclear charges and published ionization potentials, electron affinities and σ-orbital electronegativities for trigonally hybridized atoms. The program automatically adjusts the initial atomic parameters to reflect the molecular environment without the intervention of the user. The agreement between calculated and observed transition energies, oscillator strengths and ionization potentials is very good.     

以三亚吡嗪为中心的有机共轭分子的二阶NLO性质研究

采用密度泛函理论B3LYP/6-311G**方法,对一系列以三亚吡嗪为中心的有机共轭分子的二阶NLO性质和电子光谱进行了理论研究.结果表明,取代基推、拉电子能力的变化、相对数目及共轭桥的性质对研究分子的极化率及二阶NLO系数都有较大的影响.当研究分子以甲氨基为供体、以三氰基乙烯为受体、并以C=C双键为共轭桥时,显示了较大的二阶NLO活性和良好透光性的优化.该系列分子在NLO材料领域有较好的潜在应用价值.     

Theoretical study on electronic structure and optical properties of phenothiazine-containing conjugated oligomers and polymers

The application of polyfluorenes in polymeric light-emitting diodes has been hampered because of the charge injection difficulties and the troublesome formation of a tailed emission band at long wavelengths (>500 nm) during device fabrication and operation, leading to both a color instability and reduced efficiency. The incorporation of the phenothiazine units has been proven to significantly enhance the hole injection and charge carrier balance and at the same time efficiently suppress the keto defect emission. In this contribution, we apply quantum-chemical techniques to investigate poly[10-(N-(2'-methyl)phenothiazine-3,7-diyl) and its fluorene copolymer poly[10-(N-(2'-methyl)phenothiazine-3,7-diyl)-co-alt-2,7-(9,9-dimethylfluorene)] (PFPTZ) and gain a detailed understanding the influence of phenothiazine units on the electronic and optical properties of fluorene derivatives. Density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent DFT approaches are employed to study the neutral molecules, HOMO-LUMO gaps (Delta(H-L)), the lowest excitation energies (E(g)'s), positive and negative ions, as well as the IPs and EAs, focusing on the superiority of the electronic and optical properties attributed to the introduction of electron-donating moiety phenothiazine (PTZ) through comparing with pristine polyfluorene. The outcomes show that the highly nonplanar conformation of phenothiazine ring in the ground state preclude sufficiently close intermolecular interactions essential to forming aggregates or excimers. Furthermore, the HOMO energies lift about 0.4 eV, and thus, the IPs decrease about 0.3 eV in PFPTZ, suggesting the significant improved hole-accepting and transporting abilities, due to the electron-donating properties of phenothiazine ring by the presence of electron-rich sulfur and nitrogen heteroatoms and highly nonplanar characters, resulting in the enhanced performances in both efficiency and brightness compared with pristine polyfluorene. In addition, even though the introduction of electron-donating moiety PTZ onto fluorene leads to a slight bathochromic shift in absorption and emission spectra, the copolymer still exhibited strong blue emission.     

Electronic structure and optical properties of a tin-encapsulated nickel porphyrazine compound

The recently synthesized metal-encapsulated porphyrazine compound, [Sn(t-Bu)₂]₄-star-Ni(porphyrazine)-S₈, shows very interesting structural and optical absorption features compared with other metal-centered porphyrazines, e.g., metal phthalocyanines (Pc). Using self-consistent-field local density theory, we studied the ground-state and excited-state electronic structure of this molecule and compared it with its metal phthalocyanine analog NiPc. The theoretical optical spectra including oscillator strengths are in good agreement with experimental absorption and show that the characteristic transitions at the so-called Soret band in NiPc are red-shifted in the new compound. © 1994 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Electronic and optical properties of edge modified peritetracene: a DFT study

Peritetracene (PTA) molecules have promising applications in organic electronics and organic light-emitting diodes, but the major constraints come from their poor stability with higher energy gap. We have investigated the stability, electronic, and optical properties of different electron-donating- and electron-withdrawing-substituted PTA molecule groups using density functional theory (DFT) and time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) methods. On substituting suitable electron donor and acceptor groups, the energy gap of PTA molecules reduces up to 0.37 eV with an increase in their stability. The stabilities of considered PTA molecules have been investigated using the distribution pattern of frontier molecular orbital energies. The charge transfer properties with smaller ionization potential and larger electron affinity for PTA molecule have been evaluated using Koopmans’ theorem. Enhancement in dipole moment, polarizability, and hyperpolarizability of PTA substituted with electron-donating groups shows the presence of NLO properties. Also, we have investigated the spectroscopic properties of different electron-donating- and electron-withdrawing-substituted PTA molecule groups. Our spectroscopic properties show the bathochromic shift and small hypsochromic shifts in wavelengths of PTA with substituents groups. It is therefore concluded that the –NCH₃ and –NO₂ substituent groups on PTA are observed to have the strongest and highest stability than the other substituent groups considered.

     

Magnetic properties of conjugated molecules

An LCAO SCF perturbation theory is used to discuss the diamagnetic susceptibility and shielding constant contributions associated with ring currents in aromatic molecules. The proton shielding constants are calculated directly from the current density expression for benzene, naphthalene, anthracene and phenanthrene.     

Electronic structure and optical properties of monoclinic clinobisvanite BiVO4

Monoclinic clinobisvanite bismuth vanadate is an important material with wide applications. However, its electronic structure and optical properties are still not thoroughly understood. Density functional theory calculations were adopted in the present work, to comprehend the band structure, density of states, and projected wave function of BiVO(4). In particular, we put more emphasis upon the intrinsic relationship between its structure and properties. Based on the calculated results, its molecular-orbital bonding structure was proposed. And a significant phenomenon of optical anisotropy was observed in the visible-light region. Furthermore, it was found that its slightly distorted crystal structure enhances the lone-pair impact of Bi 6s states, leading to the special optical properties and excellent photocatalytic activities.     

若干有机共轭分子二阶非线性光学系数和结构的关系

利用CNDO/S-CI程序计算了四类结构近似的有机共轭分子的二阶非线性光学系数,系统地研究了分子结构、共轭链链长、取代基的电子性质、取代位置等对有机共轭大分子二阶非线性光学性质的影响。研究结果表明,四类化合物的二阶非线性光学性质与其分子结构有着密切的关系。     

新型非线性光学材料的分子设计: 系列螺旋共轭化合物的结构、光谱及二 阶非 线性光学性质的理论研究

采用AM1和ZINDO系列方法研究了螺旋共轭分子2,2'-螺二茚-1,1',3,3'-四酮及其腈基衍生物的几何构型,研究了各分子的稳定构型,并以稳定为基础,计算了这些分子的电子光谱,二阶非线性光学系数βμ,β0,及电荷转移,考察了取代基变化对βμ的影响,计算结果表明所设计分子兼具较大的二阶非线性光学系数和较高的透过率,有希望成为一类新型的二阶非线性光学材料。     

Some aspects of optical nonlinearity in a new class of conjugated molecules

We have measured second order optical nonlinearity in a number of conjugated organic molecules. The experimental technique consisted in the detecting o The results show that the important requirement for a good donor is the existence of a filled p_z orbital, that an increase in the second order hype that the sulfur atoms can perturb very efficiently the π-electron system of a hydrocarbon. These, and some other aspects, are discussed in view of th     

Peculiarities of the environmental influence on the optical properties of push-pull nonlinear optical molecules: a theoretical study

Gas-phase geometry optimization of NLO-active molecules is one of the standard approaches in the first principle computational methodology, whereas the important role of the environment is usually not considered during the evaluation of structural parameters. With a wide variety of environmentally influenced models in most cases only the high quality single point calculations are prepared. Among different approaches, the most used polarizable continuum model (PCM) seems to be promising. In this study, we have compared the electronic properties of gas-phase optimized geometries of imidazole-derived push-pull compounds with those optimized using PCM solvation approach including CH(2)Cl(2) and PMMA as media. We have focused particularly on the linear optical properties of investigated molecules, namely on the UV-vis absorption spectra. The analysis of presented results shows the applicability of the different quantum chemical (QC) methods for the UV-vis spectra calculations of linear NLO molecules. Herein we also present the need of molecule geometry optimization affected by the environment. Following the performed calculations, the electronic properties of gas-phase optimized molecules give conformable results with respect to those obtained by more time-consuming continuum optimizations. All computational data are supported by experimental investigations.     

Electronic structure,Compton profiles and optical properties of TaC and TaN

Isotropic Compton profiles of TaC and TaN have been measured for the first time, at an intermediate resolution, using 662 keV γ-radiation. Energy bands, density of states and Fermi surface topology of TaC and TaN have been computed using linear combination of atomic orbitals with density functional theory and full potential linearised augmented plane wave method. Both band structure calculations predict the metallic character of TaC and TaN. The electron momentum densities calculated using various approaches of density functional theory are compared with the present measurements. On the basis of Mulliken’s population, it is also seen that TaC has more covalent bonding than TaN. The optical properties computed using full potential linearised augmented plane wave method are explained in terms of intraband transitions.     

Vibrational structure of electronic transitions in conjugated molecules

A general approach is presented for calculating the vibronic structure (Frank-Condon factors) of electronic transitions in conjugated molecules. Application to the lowest allowed ΠΠ^* transition of ethylene, 1,3-cyclohexadiene, 1,3,5-hexatriene, and β-ionone are given.     

Electronic properties of conjugated polyelectrolyte thin films

The electronic properties of conjugated polyelectrolytes (CPEs) with poly(fluorene-co-phenylene) backbones and different counterions and charges have been investigated using absorption and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopy (UPS). The optical energy band gap of CPEs depends mainly on their conjugated backbone and are nearly insensitive to the charges or counterions. UPS measurements reveal that electron injection from Au to polymers with cationic groups is more efficient than for the neutral and anionic counterparts. The vacuum levels of CPEs were also shifted toward higher or lower binding energy, relative to that of Au, depending on the charge and counterion presence, and provide insight into the general alignment of dipoles at the metal/organic interface.