Time-Dependent Density Functional Theory Study of Low-Lying Absorption and Fluorescence Band Shapes for...

Low-lying band shapes of absorption and fluorescence spectra for a member of a newly synthesized family of phenylene-containing oligoacenes (POA 6) reported in J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2012 , 134 , 15351 are studied theoretically with two different approaches with TIPS-anthracene as a comparison. Underlying photophysics and exciton-phonon interactions in both molecules are investigated in details with the aid of the time-dependent density functional theory and multimode Brownian oscillator model. The first two low-lying excited-states of POA 6 were found to exhibit excitation characteristics spanning entire conjugated backbone despite the presence of antiaromatic phenylene section. Absorption and fluorescence spectra calculated from both time-dependent density functional theory and multimode Brownian oscillator model are shown to reach good agreement with experimental ones. The coupling between phonon modes and optical transitions is generally weak as suggested by the multimode Brownian oscillator model. Broader peaks of POA 6 spectra are found to relate to stronger coupling between low frequency phonon modes such as backbone twisting (with frequency <300 cm(-1)) and optical transitions. Furthermore, POA 6 exhibits weaker exciton-phonon coupling for the phonon modes above 1000 cm(-1) compared to TIPS-anthracene owing to extended conjugated backbone. A significant coupling between an in-plane breathing mode localized around the antiaromatic phenylene segment with frequency at 1687 cm(-1) and optical transitions for the first two excited-states of POA 6 is also observed.