Polarity of Ordered Solvent Molecules in 9,9'-Bianthracene Single Crystals Selects between Singlet Fission or Symmetry-Breaking Charge Separation.

Singlet exciton fission (SF) and symmetry-breaking charge separation (SB-CS) are both photophysical processes that can occur between two organic chromophores and are both of interest to improve solar energy conversion. Here, we tuned the photophysics of a 9,9'-bianthracene () single crystal between SF and SB-CS using solvent intercalation to change the electric field within the crystal. Crystals of were grown in -xylene, chlorobenzene, -dichlorobenzene, and benzonitrile, as well as solvent-free from a melt.

Charge Transfer Dynamics in Supramolecular Tessellations Composed of Aromatic Donors and Chiral Tris(naphthalenediimide) Triangular Acceptors.

Understanding charge transfer (CT) dynamics in donor-acceptor (D-A) cocrystals is important for the development of efficient organic photovoltaic and electronic materials. This study explores the photogenerated CT states of supramolecular tessellations formed by cocrystallizing a chiral tris(naphthalenediimide) triangular prism (-)-NDI-Δ with pyrene, perylene, and -xanthenoxanthene electron donors. By manipulating crystallization conditions, one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) cocrystals with distinct structural motifs and morphologies are achieved.

Structure-enabled long-lived charge separation in single crystals of an asymmetric donor-acceptor perylenediimide cyclophane.

We report the synthesis and characterization of a covalently linked asymmetric cyclophane comprising a 1,7-di(pyrrolidin-1'-yl)perylene-3,4,9,10-bis(dicarboximide) (pyrPDI) and 1,6,7,12-tetra(4'--butylphenoxy)perylene-3,4,9,10-bis(dicarboximide) (tpPDI), which absorbs light from 400-750 nm. Single crystals of pyrPDI-tpPDI were analyzed by using X-ray diffraction and transient absorption microscopy. The crystal structure contains several types of intermolecular donor-acceptor interactions (pyrPDI-pyrPDI, tpPDI-tpPDI, and pyrPDI-tpPDI) in addition to the covalently installed intramolecular interaction.

Long-Lived Charge Separation in Single Crystals of an Electron Donor Covalently Linked to Four Acceptor Molecules.

Crystalline donor-acceptor (D-A) systems serve as an excellent platform for studying CT exciton creation, migration, and dissociation into free charge carriers for solar energy conversion. Donor-acceptor cocrystals have been utilized to develop an understanding of CT exciton formation in ordered organic solids; however, the strong electronic coupling of the D and A units can sometimes limit charge separation lifetimes due to their close proximity. Covalent D-A systems that preorganize specific donor-acceptor structures can assist in engineering crystal morphologies that promote long-lived charge separation to overcome this limitation.

Oriented Triplet Excitons as Long-Lived Electron Spin Qutrits in a Molecular Donor-Acceptor Single Cocrystal.

The photogeneration of multiple unpaired electron spins within molecules is a promising route to applications in quantum information science because they can be initialized into well-defined, multilevel quantum states ( > 1/2) and reproducibly fabricated by chemical synthesis. However, coherent manipulation of these spin states is difficult to realize in typical molecular systems due to the lack of selective addressability and short coherence times of the spin transitions. Here, these challenges are addressed by using donor-acceptor single cocrystals composed of pyrene and naphthalene dianhydride to host spatially oriented triplet excitons, which exhibit promising photogenerated qutrit properties.

Singlet Fission in Perylene Monoimide Single Crystals and Polycrystalline Films.

Singlet fission (SF) is a spin-allowed process in which a photogenerated singlet exciton down-converts into two triplet excitons. Perylene-3,4-dicarboximide (PMI) has singlet and triplet state energies of 2.4 and 1.

Mechanism of Ultrafast Triplet Exciton Formation in Single Cocrystals of π-Stacked Electron Donors and Acceptors.

Ultrafast triplet formation in donor-acceptor (D-A) systems typically occurs by spin-orbit charge-transfer intersystem crossing (SOCT-ISC), which requires a significant orbital angular momentum change and is thus usually observed when the adjacent π systems of D and A are orthogonal; however, the results presented here show that subnanosecond triplet formation occurs in a series of D-A cocrystals that form one-dimensional cofacial π stacks. Using ultrafast transient absorption microscopy, photoexcitation of D-A single cocrystals, where D is coronene (Cor) or pyrene (Pyr) and A is ,-bis(3'-pentyl)-perylene-3,4:9,10-bis(dicarboximide) (CPDI) or naphthalene-1,4:5,8-tetracarboxydianhydride (NDA), results in formation of the charge transfer (CT) excitons Cor-CPDI, Pyr-CPDI, Cor-NDA, and Pyr-NDA in <300 fs, while triplet exciton formation occurs in τ = 125, 106, 484, and 958 ps, respectively. TDDFT calculations show that the SOCT-ISC rates correlate with charge delocalization in the CT exciton state.

Using Molecular Design to Enhance the Coherence Time of Quintet Multiexcitons Generated by Singlet Fission in Single Crystals.

Multiexciton quintet states, (TT), photogenerated in organic semiconductors using singlet fission (SF), consist of four quantum entangled spins, promising to enable new applications in quantum information science. However, the factors that determine the spin coherence of these states remain underexplored. Here, we engineer the packing of tetracene molecules within single crystals of 5,12-bis(tricyclohexylsilylethynyl)tetracene (TCHS-tetracene) to demonstrate a (TT) state that exhibits promising spin qubit properties, including a coherence time, , = 3 μs at 10 K, a population lifetime, , = 130 μs at 5 K, and stability even at room temperature.