Persistent hole-burning of perylene microcrystallites dispersed in PVA

A persistent hole-burning is observed in β-perylene microcrystallites, which were embedded in poly-vinyl alcohol. By laser light excitation at 22,535 cm−1 and at 10 K, the hole is found at the excitation photon energy. The mechanism of the persistent hole-burning is interpreted in terms of the resolution of microcrystallites into smaller microcrystallites. This is a novel observation of the persistent hole-burning in aromatic microcrystallites. When the specimen, which includes a hole, is annealed at high temperatures, the resolved microcrystallites restore back to the old position as had been. The β-perylene microcrystallite specimen that we have grown was as small as 1.5 nm in average diameter. They are one order smaller in number of molecules included, compared to those that have been reported on aromatic microcrystallites, anthracene for example. Due to this, we were able to observe the 0-0 transition energy, which varied according as the number of molecules involved in the microcrystallites. We also observed the 0-0 absorption (excitation) spectrum, which depends on the molecular arrays in the microcrystallites. The 0-0 transition of a single molecule in poly-vinyl alcohol matrix is anticipated to be located at 22,885 cm−1.