High-resolution electronic spectra of ethylenedioxythiophene oligomers

The photophysical properties of a series of 3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene oligomers (OEDOT) with up to five repeat units are studied as function of conjugation length using absorption, fluorescence, phosphorescence, and triplet-triplet absorption spectroscopy at low temperature in a rigid matrix. At 80 K, a remarkably highly resolved vibrational fine structure can be observed in the all electronic spectra which reveals that the electronic structure of the oligomers strongly couples to two different vibrational modes (similar to 180 and similar to 50 meV). The energies of the 0-0 transitions in absorption, and fluorescence, phosphorescence, and triplet-triplet absorption all show a reciprocal dependence on the inverse number of repeat units. The triplet energies inferred from the phosphorescence spectra are accurately reproduced by quantum chemical DFT calculations using optimized geometries for the singlet ground state (S-0) and first excited triplet state (T-1). Using vibrational IR and Raman spectroscopy and quantum chemical DFT calculations for the normal modes in the ground state, we have been able to assign the vibrations that couple to the electronic structure to fully symmetric normal modes. The high-energy mode is associated with the well-known carbon-carbon bond stretch vibration, and the low-energy mode involves a deformation of the bond angles within the thiophene rings and a change of C-S bond lengths. Experimentally obtained Huang-Rhys parameters and theoretical normal mode deformations are used to analyze the geometry changes between T-1 and S-0 and to semiexperimentally predict the geometry in the S-1 state for 2EDOT.