Abstract

Photochemical and photophysical hole burning is a well established technique for eliminating the large inhomogeneous broadening of electronic transitions, which dominates the optical spectroscopy of amorphous solids. With the possibility of measuring the quasi-homogeneuos width Γ_qh of electronic transitions, dye molecules can be used as probes for dynamical processes in amorphous solids [1][2]. The temperature dependence of the electronic linewidth of a given dye molecule in a crystalline lattice as compared to its linewidth in an amorphous solid shows large differences in both, its absolute value and its broadening behavior. This is due to the different origin of the dominant line broadening mechanisms: Interaction with phonons in a crystalline host and with two level systems (TLS) in an amorphous solid.

© 1991 Optical Society of America