Supramolecular interactions in clusters of polar and polarizable molecules

TL;DR

This paper introduces a simplified model for polar and polarizable molecular clusters, revealing collective effects, discontinuous charge crossovers, and novel photoexcitation phenomena driven by supramolecular interactions.

Contribution

It provides a transparent two-state model capturing complex physics of polar molecules, including collective effects and optical responses, with insights into discontinuous charge crossovers.

Findings

Large variation of molecular polarity with interactions

Discontinuous charge crossovers in attractive lattices

Multielectron transfer in primary photoexcitation near crossover

Abstract

We present a model for molecular materials made up of polar and polarizable molecular units. A simple two state model is adopted for each molecular site and only classical intermolecular interactions are accounted for, neglecting any intermolecular overlap. The complex and interesting physics driven by interactions among polar and polarizable molecules becomes fairly transparent in the adopted model. Collective effects are recognized in the large variation of the molecular polarity with supramolecular interactions, and cooperative behavior shows up with the appearance, in attractive lattices, of discontinuous charge crossovers. The mean-field approximation proves fairly accurate in the description of the gs properties of MM, including static linear and non-linear optical susceptibilities, apart from the region in the close proximity of the discontinuous charge crossover. Sizeable deviations from the excitonic description are recognized both in the excitation spectrum and in linear and non-linear optical responses. New and interesting phenomena are recognized near the discontinuous charge crossover for non-centrosymmetric clusters, where the primary photoexcitation event corresponds to a multielectron transfer.