Intersystem crossing in oligothiophenes studied by fs time-resolved spectroscopy

High triplet quantum yields of more than 90% for bithiophene and terthiophene have to be connected with very fast and effective formation of triplets after excitation. We studied these processes with fs pump–probe spectroscopy. The time behaviour of transient optical spectra within the singlet and triplet manifold was examined for bi- and terthiophene (2T and 3T) in solution. For 2T we used two-photon absorption for excitation. We found transient spectra of the excited singlet state, the triplet state and that of radical cations. The kinetics of the excited-state absorption was described by a bi-exponential function. Additionally we observed formation and recombination of radical cations. The recombination is connected with triplet formation. Both processes could be described by a time constant of 62 ps±9 ps. For 3T we found a dependence of the processes on excitation energy using one-photon absorption. The triplet quantum yield increased with higher excitation energy. The kinetics becomes bi-exponential with increasing amplitude of the short time constant of 2 ps at increasing excitation energy. The main reasons for the effective intersystem crossing (ISC) in both oligothiophenes are – besides the high spin-orbit coupling factor introduced by the sulphur atom – the almost isoenergetic positions of the S ₁ and T ₂ states, detected by PD-PES 1]. At higher photon excitation energy for 3T above the band gap an additional channel for ISC was detected. We believe that during the geometric change from the non-relaxed non-planar to the relaxed planar excited state S ₁, ultrafast intersystem crossing takes place. Received: 6 December 1999 / Published online: 2 August 2000