Perylene bisimides (PBIs) are excellent dyes and versatile building blocks for supramolecular structures. Only recently have PBIs been shown to depict absorption characteristics of J-aggregates. We apply electronic structure calculations and femtosecond pump-probe spectroscopy to the monomeric, bay-substituted building-block of a PBI aggregate in dichloromethane to investigate its electronically excited states in order to provide the ingredients for the description of excitons in the aggregates and their annihilation processes. The PBI S(1)←S(0) absorption spectrum and the S(1)→S(0) emission spectrum have been assigned based on time-dependent Density Functional Theory calculations for the geometry-optimized electronic ground state and excited state structures in the gas phase. The monomeric absorption spectrum contains a strong transition at 580 nm and a broad shoulder between 575-500 nm, both features are attributed to a vibrational progression with an effective vibrational mode of 1415 cm(-1) whose major contributing vibrational normal modes are breathing modes of the perylene body. The effective vibrational mode of the emission spectrum is characterized by a frequency of 1369 cm(-1), whose major contributing vibrational normal modes are characterized by perylene and phenol (bay-substituent) CH bendings. The S(n)←S(1) excited state absorption spectrum is assigned based on Multi-Reference Configuration Interaction methodology. Here, we identify three transitions which give rise to two broad experimental features, one being located between 500 and 600 nm and the other one ranging from 650 to 750 nm.
Quantum chemical and quantum dynamical calculations are performed for a bay-substituted perylene bisimide dye up to its hexameric aggregate. The aggregate structure is determined by employing the self-consistent charge density functional tight-binding (SCC-DFTB) approach including dispersion corrections. It is characterized by a stabilization via two chains of hydrogen bonds facilitated by amide functionalities. Focusing on the central embedded dimer, the Coulomb coupling for this J-aggregate is determined by means of the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT) to be -514 cm(-1). Exciton vibrational coupling is treated within the shifted oscillator model from which five strongly coupled modes per monomer are selected for inclusion into a minimal dynamic model. Performing wave packet propagations for a model employing up to 7 electronic states and 30 vibrational modes using the multiconfiguration time-dependent Hartree method, aggregate absorption spectra are obtained and compared to experiment.
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