Efficient photochromic transformation of a new fluorenyl diarylethene: One- and two-photon absorption spectroscopy

Gheorghe Luchita, Mykhailo V. Bondar, Sheng Yao, Ivan A. Mikhailov, Ciceron O. Yanez, Olga V. Przhonska, Artem E. Masunov, Kevin D. Belfield

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

24 Scopus citations

Abstract

Efficient reversible phototransformation of a new diarylethene-fluorene derivative, 1,2-bis(5-(9,9-didecyl-7-nitro-9H-fluoren-2-yl)-2-methylthiophen-3- yl)cyclopent-1-ene (1), was demonstrated in organic media under low-intensity laser excitation. Linear photophysical characterization of 1 was performed at room temperature in solvents of different polarity and viscosity. Significantly, close to unity quantum yield for the cyclization reaction of 1 was shown in nonpolar solutions. The lifetimes of the excited states of the open (OF) and closed (CF) forms of 1 were measured by a femtosecond transient absorption technique, and corresponding values of ∼0.7 and ∼0.9 ps were shown in dichloromethane (DCM), respectively. Degenerate two-photon absorption (2PA) spectra of the OF and CF of 1 were obtained over a broad spectral range by the open aperture Z-scan method under 1 kHz femtosecond excitation. The values of 2PA cross sections of the OF in DCM (∼50-70 GM) were found to increase up to 1 order of magnitude (∼600 GM) after cyclization to the CF. The nature of cyclization and cylcoreversion processes were investigated by quantum chemistry with employment of DFT-based methods implemented in the Gaussian'09 program. The potential of 1 for application in optical data storage was shown using poly(methyl methacrylate)-doped films and two-photon fluorescence microscopy readout.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)3559-3567
Number of pages9
JournalACS Applied Materials and Interfaces
Volume3
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 28 2011
Externally publishedYes

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Materials Science

Keywords

  • diarylethene
  • photochromic reaction
  • photoisomerization
  • transient absorption spectroscopy
  • two-photon absorption

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