Optically detected magnetic resonance study of the lowest excited triplet state of aromatic thioketones: Xanthione

The aromatic thioketone xanthione has been investigated by means of the optically detected magnetic resonance (ODMR) technique in a n-hexane matrix at ≈ 1.1 K. It was established that the short-lived red emission, which is characteristic for many thione molecules, is phosphorescence. At high temperatures (77 K) this phosphorescence originates mainly (>80%) from the T₁^z (n, π*) sublevel (k_z^(r) >k_x^(r), k_y^(r). At low temperature (1.1 K) the intersystem crossing following S₂ (π, π*) ← S₀ excitation is a highly spin-sublevel selective process which populates predominantly the T₁^x and T₁^y, levels. Hence, the slow spin—lattice relaxation phosphorescence at low temperature originates from these sublevels. A value of 0.0611 cm^?1 was obtained for the zero-field parameter |E|/hc. A lower limit of 0.66 cm^?1 has been found for the zero-field parameter |D|/hc. This value is considerably larger than those observed for ketones, and it is shown that spin—orbit coupling contributes strongly to the zero-field splitting.