Abstract
Single molecule spectroscopy requires molecules with low triplet yields and/or short triplet lifetimes. The intersystem crossing (ISC) rate may be dramatically enhanced by the host matrix. Comparing the fluorescence intensity of single terrylene molecules in para-terphenyl, naphthalene, and anthracene crystals, we found a reduction of the saturation intensity by three orders of magnitude in the latter case. The fluorescence autocorrelation function indicates that the bottleneck state is the terrylene triplet. We propose a ping-pong mechanism between host and guest. This intermolecular ISC mechanism, which can open whenever the host triplet lies lower than the guest singlet, was overlooked in previous single molecule investigations.
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From Optika i Spektroskopiya, Vol. 98, No. 5, 2005, pp. 745–751.
Original English Text Copyright © 2005 by Kol’chenko, Kozankiewicz, Nicolet, Orrit.
This article was submitted by the authors in English.
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Kol’chenko, M.A., Kozankiewicz, B., Nicolet, A. et al. Intersystem crossing mechanisms and single molecule fluorescence: Terrylene in anthracene crystals. Opt. Spectrosc. 98, 681–686 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1929053
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/1.1929053