Single molecule spectroscopy: Stark effect of pentacene in p-terphenyl

Abstract

Based on the occurrence of extremely narrow zero phonon lines and their inhomogeneous distribution spectroscopic isolation of single absorbers in solid matrices can be achieved. Pentacene molecules in a p-terphenyl host crystal have been studied at cryogenic temperatures using absorption [1] and fluorescence excitation [2,3] techniques. Such investigations provide information on a variety of guest host properties such as homogeneous dephasing, spectral diffusion [3] and inhomogeneous broadening. Single molecule detection also is a key to the investigations of fundamental spectroscopic properties of individual molecules.</jats:p