Abstract

We previously reported the first observation of a photochemical hole burned above 77 K.¹ In this paper, the hole burning characteristics of several related dye doped polymers were investigated. The samples we studied were (A) porphin derivatives with ionic substituents such as sulfothienyl groups and (B) two fluorescein derivatives, both dispersed in polyvinyl alcohol. The following results were obtained: (1) The hole width in the former shows a power law dependence on the burning temperature between 20 and 120 K, and the value of the power is 1.7-1.8. (2) The energy difference between the zero phonon hole and the side hole is fairly large in the former, which brings about a weak temperature dependence of the Debye-Waller factor. (3) Persistent spectral holes can be burned in the latter, which is reported for the first time. (4) The mechanism of the hole burning in the latter does not involve the intramolecular charge transfer proposed for similar organic dye molecules such as resorufin.²

© 1989 Optical Society of America