Singlet exciton energy transfer in conjugated polymers is a fundamental process in organic photovoltaic devices, chemical sensors, and light emitting diodes. We directly measure the distance dependence parameter, RET, of this process by a new sub-diffraction optical technique, Bias modulated Intensity-Centroid spectroscopy (BIC). The mean observed RET for singlet-exciton to hole-polaron energy transfer for the conjugated polymer MEH-PPV is observed to be 30 nm. This value is far in excess of the expected RET for single-step Forster energy transfer. This result is consistent with molecules in an extended conformation and strongly suggests that long-range, multistep, electronic energy funneling can occur in conjugated polymers over distances > 30 nm.

Measurement of the distance scale for nanoscale electronic energy funneling by sub-diffraction single molecule spectroscopy

239th National Meeting (2010)

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