Abstract

The optical response of nanostructures, such as molecular aggregates, conjugated polymers, and semiconductor microcrystals, has attracted much attention lately. The delocalization of the electronic eigenstates over the N units (molecules) in these systems gives rise to interesting cooperative phenomena, such as (i) motional line narrowing $\left(\text{FWHM}\propto \text{1/}\sqrt{N}\right)$, (ii) exciton superradiance $\left({\gamma }_{\text{rad}}\propto N\right)$, and (iil) giant, size-enhanced, nonlinear optical polarizabilities (χ⁽³⁾ ∝ N²).^1-3 In this presentation we discuss the theory of optical response of linear molecular aggregates described by the Frenkel exciton Hamiltonian with diagonal (energetic) disorder.

© 1993 Optical Society of America