Abstract

In recent years the microscopic description of inhomogeneous broadening of electronic transitions of chromophores in crystals and glasses has attracted much interest [1–3]. In the phenomenological model proposed by Selzer [1], it is assumed that the energies of the initial and final states involved in the optical transition exhibit a one-to-one correlation. In an alternative approach by Lee et al [2], the two states are considered as completely uncorrelated. Very recently, a more general microscopic theory has been presented by Laird and Skinner [3]. In the latter theory the aforementioned models are obtained as limiting cases. So far relatively few experiments have been reported which focus on the origin of inhomogeneous broadening.

© 1991 Optical Society of America