Optical studies of platinum-containing conjugated polymers

We have used a variety of steady state and ultrafast spectroscopies for studying the photophysics of platinum-containing conjugated polymers, which have potential applications as the active layer of light-emitting diodes. The intrachain heavy metal Pt atom increases the spin-orbit coupling, and this influences both the intersystem crossing time, T$_{ic}$, and the phosphorescence emission strength. From the ps transient pump-probe photomodulation spectroscopy and emission dynamic measurements using the up-conversion technique, we found that T$_{ic}$ for these polymers is of order of few ps; whereas the phosphorescence lifetime is of order of few microseconds.