Fluorescence quenching in an organic donor-acceptor dyad: a first principles study.

Perylene bisimide and triphenyl diamine are prototypical organic dyes frequently used in organic solar cells and light emitting devices. Recent Forster-resonant-energy-transfer experiments on a bridged organic dyad consisting of triphenyl diamine as an energy-donor and perylene bisimide as an energy-acceptor revealed a strong fluorescence quenching on the perylene bisimide. This quenching is absent in a solution of free donors and acceptors and thus attributed to the presence of the saturated CH(2)O(CH(2))(12)-bridge. We investigate the cause of the fluorescence quenching as well as the special role of the covalently bound bridge by means of time dependent density functional theory and molecular dynamics. The conformational dynamics of the bridged system leads to a charge transfer process between donor and acceptor that causes the acceptor fluorescence quenching.