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Title: Photo-assisted intersystem crossing: The predominant triplet formation mechanism in some isolated polycyclic aromatic molecules excited with pulsed lasers

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4926925· OSTI ID:1213379
 [1];  [2]
  1. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry
  2. Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States). Dept. of Chemistry; Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)

Naphthalene, anthracene, and phenanthrene are shown to have very long-lived triplet lifetimes when the isolated molecules are excited with nanosecond pulsed lasers resonant with the lowest singlet state. For naphthalene, triplet state populations are created only during the laser pulse, excluding the possibility of normal intersystem crossing at the one photon level, and all molecules have triplet lifetimes greater than hundreds of microseconds, similar to the behavior previously reported for phenylacetylene. Although containing 7–12 thousand cm⁻¹ of vibrational energy, the triplet molecules have ionization thresholds appropriate to vibrationless T₁ states. The laser power dependences (slopes of log-log power plots) of the excited singlet and triplet populations are about 0.7 for naphthalene and about 0.5 for anthracene. Kinetic modeling of the power dependences successfully reproduces the experimental results and suggests that the triplet formation mechanism involves an enhanced spin orbit coupling caused by sigma character in states at the 2-photon level. Symmetry Adapted Cluster-Configuration Interaction calculations produced excited state absorption spectra to provide guidance for estimating kinetic rates and the sigma character present in higher electronic states. It is concluded that higher excited state populations are significant when larger molecules are excited with pulsed lasers and need to be taken into account whenever discussing the molecular photodynamics.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704; AC02-98CH10886; SC00012704
OSTI ID:
1213379
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1228703
Report Number(s):
BNL-108260-2015-JA; JCPSA6; R&D Project: CO006; KC0301020; TRN: US1500643
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Physics, Vol. 143, Issue 4; ISSN 0021-9606
Publisher:
American Institute of Physics (AIP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 3 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (1)

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