Chemical Physics Letters, Vol.589, 63-66, 2013
Ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer in conducting polymer-buckminsterfullerene composites (Reprinted from Chemical Physics Letters, vol 213, pg 389-394, 1993)
We report time-resolved photoinduced absorption and time-resolved photoconductivity in conducting polymer-C-60 composites. Photoinduced electron transfer occurs at times <1 ps. Two subgap features are observed in the photoinduced absorption of pure poly (3-octylthiophene) (P3OT); these form earlier than 1 ps and decay with tau < 5 ps. P3OT mixed with C-60 shows similar spectral features at early times (< 1 ps); however, a new spectrum evolves after approximate to 1 ps as a result of electron transfer from P3OT to C-60. Ultrafast photoinduced electron transfer improves the quantum efficiency for photogeneration of charge carriers; in the ps domain the photoconductivity of the conducting polymer host is enhanced by more than an order of magnitude upon mixing in a few percent C-60. (C) 2013 Published by Elsevier B.V.