Structure-property relationship of amplified spontaneous emission in organic semiconductor materials: TPD, DPABP, and...

N,N'-Diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-(1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'-diamine (TPD) was demonstrated to be suitable for stimulated emission in doping and nondoping planar waveguide structure, but the mechanism for its lasing is of ambiguity. With the aim of providing a microsscopic picture for its lasing, we performed a combined experimental and theortical investigation of the absorption, photoluminescence (PL), and stimulated emission of TPD and other two similar molecules: 1,4-bis (diphenylamino)biphenyl (DPABP) and N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(1-naphthyl)-1,1'-biphenyl-4,4″-diamine (NPB). It was found that DPABP shows the same amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) characteristics as TPD, but NPB did not. In theory, density functional theory (DFT) and Franck-Condon Principle were used to analyze the molecular geometry in the electronic ground state as well as the optically excited state and the vibrational levels in electronic ground state, respectively. The calculation results show that for TPD and DPABP, several strongly elongated high-frequency modes (1199-1664 cm(-1)) in the carbon rings contribute to the distinct first vibronic sideband in the PL spectra, which form an effective four-level system for lasing. For NPB, when the peripheral toluene or benzene is replaced with naphthyl, a number of strongly elongated low-frequency modes (11-689 cm(-1)) deriving from naphthyl leads to a series of energy sublevels, which destroys the four-level system. Our results provided a new insight and better understanding into the lasing of organic molecules.