Excited-state dynamics in diketopyrrolopyrrole-based copolymer for organic photovoltaics investigated by transient optical spectroscopy

TLDR: In this paper, the photoexcited state dynamics in a donor-acceptor copolymer, poly{3,6-dithiophene-2-yl-2,5-di(2-octyldodecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4dione-alt-naphthalene} (pDPP-TNT), by picosecond fluorescence and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopies.

Abstract: We investigate the photoexcited state dynamics in a donor?acceptor copolymer, poly{3,6-dithiophene-2-yl-2,5-di(2-octyldodecyl)-pyrrolo[3,4-c]pyrrole-1,4-dione-alt-naphthalene} (pDPP-TNT), by picosecond fluorescence and femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopies. Time-resolved fluorescence lifetime measurements of pDPP-TNT thin films reveal that the lifetime of the singlet excited state is 185 ? 5 ps and that singlet?singlet annihilation occurs at excitation photon densities above 6 ? 1017 photons/cm3. From the results of singlet?singlet annihilation analysis, we estimate that the single-singlet annihilation rate constant is (6.0 ? 0.2) ? 10?9 cm3 s?1 and the singlet diffusion length is ~7 nm. From the comparison of femtosecond transient absorption measurements and picosecond fluorescence measurements, it is found that the time profile of the photobleaching signal in the charge-transfer (CT) absorption band coincides with that of the fluorescence intensity and there is no indication of long-lived species, which clearly suggests that charged species, such as polaron pairs and triplet excitons, are not effectively photogenerated in the neat pDPP-TNT polymer.