X-ray Raman scattering study of aligned polyfluorene

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that x-ray Raman scattering can effectively analyze the electronic structure of aligned conjugated polymers, offering a practical alternative to traditional x-ray absorption methods.

Contribution

It introduces the application of x-ray Raman scattering to aligned polyfluorene, enabling symmetry decomposition of unoccupied electronic states, complementing existing techniques.

Findings

X-ray Raman scattering is a viable alternative to x-ray absorption.

The method allows symmetry decomposition of unoccupied states.

Application to aligned polyfluorene reveals detailed electronic structure.

Abstract

We present a non-resonant inelastic x-ray scattering study at the carbon K-edge on aligned poly[9,9-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-fluorene-2,7-diyl] and show that the x-ray Raman scattering technique can be used as a practical alternative to x-ray absorption measurements. We demonstrate that this novel method can be applied to studies on aligned $\pi$-conjugated polymers complementing diffraction and optical studies. Combining the experimental data and a very recently proposed theoretical scheme we demonstrate a unique property of x-ray Raman scattering by performing the symmetry decomposition on the density of unoccupied electronic states into $s$- and $p$-type symmetry contributions.