Singlet Fission

Singlet fission, the process whereby a photo-excited singlet exciton spontaneously splits into to lower energy triplet excitons has been known to occur in select organic materials for over fifty years. What was once thought to be an interesting but rare phenomena has taken on renewed vigor as an area of investigation over the last decade. This surge of interest is the result of both the realization that fission may lead to substantial practical increases in photovoltaic efficiencies of solar cells, as well as a substantial increase in the number of systems that have been demonstrated to exhibit the phenomena rapidly and with high triplet yield. Much recent progress has been made both experimentally and theoretically to understand and probe the myriad systems which exhibit singlet fission. In particular advances associated with the direct spectroscopic interrogation and proper conceptual description of the manifold of triplet pair states, the realization of the importance of strong vibronic coupling, and the synthesis and probing of intramolecular fission, among other recent discoveries, have greatly energized this now highly active and interdisciplinary area. This special topic will bring together experimentalists and theorists working in the area of singlet fission to highlight the recent advances in the field.

Guest Editors: David R. Reichman and Xiaoyang Zhu