The exciton—phonon interaction for triplet exciton bands of organic solids: An experimental and theoretical study

Abstract Very high resolution optical data on the temperature dependences of the Davydov component absorption profiles and polarization dependent one-phonon structures associated with the lowest triplet exciton band of anthracene are presented along with a theoretical framework for their interpretation. The interpretation of the one-particle exciton—phonon transitions involving both one-phonon creation and annihilation (cold and hot phonon transitions) is entirely consistent with the analysis of the T -dependent dephasing of the lowest zero-phonon Davydov transition in terms of two mechanisms: delocalized exciton—delocalized phonon scattering operative for the low frequency ( − ) phonons which undergo no lattice distortion and: Raman like phonon scattering operative for the higher frequency phonons which do. It is the latter which leads to the identical T 2 linewidth dependences of the two Davydov components in the high T limit. The former scattering is dominant at the lowest temperatures. In addition, the, marked and polarization dependent mirror symmetry breakdown between the hot and cold one-particle transitions can be nicely understood in terms of interferences occurring between the Condon and phononic (from the dependence of the pure exciton transition dipoles on phonon coordinate displacement) contributions to the one-particle transition dipoles. It is argued that our findings for anthracene should prove useful for triplet exciton bands in other organic solids.