Single Molecule Spectroscopy of Novel Crystalline and Polymeric Systems

Single molecule spectroscopy in solids at low temperature is a very rapidly growing field which due to the sensitivity of a single molecule to its truly local environment yields new insights in the structure and dynamics of crystalline and amorphous solids [1,2]. In the first years of SMS a lot of different experimental techniques have been applied to only a few well selected systems. These were the mixed crystalline system pentacene in p-terphenyl, and perylene and terrylene in poly(ethylene). Very recently, it was recognized by several groups that it is important to find new systems to demonstrate the more general applicability of this new and exciting spectroscopy. While there are several - well known - stringent requirements for any specific system to observe single molecule spectra with the fluorescence excitation technique, recent successful experiments proved that there is still a wide variety of systems where SMS can be pursued. Two new systems introduced lately were terrylene in the Shpol’skii matrix hexadecane [3] and Rhodamine 640 in (poly)ethylene [4]. In our group we investigated new crystalline as well as new polymeric systems.