The ultrafast excited-state relaxation dynamics of indolo[3,2-b]carbazole (ICZ) molecules were investigated in thin films and single crystals. In the ICZ film, singlet fission (SF) was directly observed both from the upper excited singlet states S-N within 480-850 fs and from the upper vibrational levels of the singlet state S-1 within 6-11 ps, which fully suppressed the intramolecular charge transfer (CT) process in S-1. In the ICZ crystal, the exciton relaxation through SF and polaron formation compete in the ultrafast timescale (<30 fs), which is accompanied by a thermally induced broadening of the S-1-S-N absorption band in the transient absorption spectra. The triplet-state lifetime is shortened from ICZ crystals (>1 ms) to films (2 mu s) due to SF with subsequent triplet-triplet annihilation, suggesting the impact of well-structured crystallinity and molecular packing on the exciton transport dynamics. The efficient SF together with well-characterized energy transfer and CT properties of ICZ solids extends the usage of ICZ-core-based organic materials in photovoltaic and electrochemical applications.
QC 20210929