Excitation dynamics of a low bandgap silicon-bridged dithiophene copolymer and its composites with fullerenes

Abstract

We report on excitation dynamics in pristine and bulk heterojunction films of the low bandgap silicon-bridged dithiophene copolymer poly[(4,4′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)dithieno[3,2-b:2′, 3′-d]silole)-2,6-diyl-alt-(4,7-bis(2-thienyl)-2,1,3-benzothiadiazole)-5,5′-diyl] with methanofullerene derivatives. The combination of ultrafast transient transmission and photoluminescence allows us to probe the relaxation of both exciton and polaron states in a relatively wide spectral and temporal range. Measurements reveal that the majority of excitations undergo ultrashort non-radiative relaxation while a small fraction of the photoexcited species decays slowly within hundreds of ps. In the blend films, significantly longer decays are observed suggesting the presence of long lived holes and/or charged-transfer type of excitons