Circularly polarized luminescence from individual microstructures of conjugated polymer aggregates with solvent-induced chirality

Abstract

We report a microscopic study of circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) from R and S isomers of aggregates of the conjugated polymer F8BT, a copolymer containing fluorene and thiophene monomer units. Chirality in the aggregates is induced by addition of either (R)- or (S)-limonene during aggregation in solution. Solid-state samples are prepared either by drop-casting or spin-coating of the aggregate solution. CPL dissymmetry parameter g measured for individual aggregate microstructures shows a broad distribution of values ranging from positive to negative even for the same isomer. The difference in the centers of the g distribution between the R and S isomers reflects the intrinsic CPL from the chiral aggregates, and is found to depend on the size of the aggregate structures. On the other hand, the large widths of the distributions are ascribed to an optical effect arising from phase retardation along the optical path of the CPL inside the sample.