Nonradiative Damping of Molecular Electronic Excited States by Metal Surfaces.
Abstract
Eighteen years ago a series of extremely important experiments were reported which studied for the first time the effect of a metal on an electronically excited molecule located hundreds or thousands of angstroms away. In these experiments, the Langmoir-Blodgett monolayer assembly technique was used to create a variable thickness spacer layer on top of the metal, and a layer of the luminescent molecules was placed on top of the spacer. In the 1970's theoretical investigations showed that in the short distance regime the molecule nonradiatively transfers energy to the substrate. In this review we discuss the interaction of a molecular excited state with a smooth substrate. Both theoretical and experimental work is treated. This discussion will concentrate on the classical treatment of the interaction because of its astounding success in comparison with experiment. We do however discuss the shortcomings of the classical treatment and some recent approaches to correcting these limitations. The experimental work is considered in detail but we focus on the region close to the substrate, less than 500 away because the longer distance regime has been well reviewed. At the end of this article we briefly point out areas where future work is needed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 1985
- Accession Number
- ADA154619
Entities
People
- A. P. Alivisatos
- C. B. Harris
- D. H. Waldeck
Organizations
- University of California, Berkeley