ABSTRACT
Enantiopure P- and M-carbo[6]helicenes substituted with one or two tetracyanobutadiene moieties at positions 2 and 15 have been prepared. Grafting of these electron-accepting groups onto the π-helical core resulted in strong charge-transfer effects, which greatly affected the UV/Vis, electronic circular dichroism (ECD), and two-photon absorption (TPA) responses. The ECD signal was found to be reversibly switched by applying a redox stimulus.
ABSTRACT
Herein, we report on the theoretical-experimental analysis of the two photon absorption and circular dichroism spectra of 1-(2-pyridyl)-4-methoxy-carbo[6]helicene derivative (P6). The primary outcomes of our investigation on this particular helicene derivative with a donor-acceptor motif on one end led to two important conclusions: (1) the lengthening of the π-electron delocalization within the helical core of P6 predominantly increases the contribution of the magnetic dipole transition moment to the two-photon circular dichroism (TPCD) signal; and (2) the electric quadrupole transition moment contribution to the TPCD signal is enhanced by the intramolecular charge transfer (ICT) produced by the donor-acceptor combination on one end of the molecule. To corroborate our results, we performed a comparative theoretical analysis of the effect of the energy gap and ICT on TPCD on a series of P6-like helicenes with different donor-acceptor combinations. Two-photon absorption and TPCD spectra were obtained using the double L-scan technique over a broad spectral range (400-900 nm) using 90 fs pulses at a low repetition rate (2-50 Hz) produced by an amplified femtosecond system. The theoretical simulations were calculated using time dependent density functional theory at the CAM-B3LYP/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory.
ABSTRACT
Herein we report on the expanded theoretical calculations and the experimental measurements of the two-photon absorption (TPA) and two-photon circular dichroism (TPCD) spectra of a series of optically active biaryl derivatives (R-BINOL, R-VANOL, and R-VAPOL) using femtosecond pulses. The comparative analysis of the experimental TPCD spectra obtained with our tunable amplified femtosecond system with those previously measured in our group on the same series of compounds in the picosecond regime reveals a decrease in the amplitude of the signal and an improvement in matching with the theory in the former. These results can be explained based on the negligible contribution of excited state absorption (ESA) using femtosecond pulses compared to the picosecond regime. We show how ESA affects both the strength of the signal and the shape of the TPA and TPCD spectra. TPA and TPCD spectra were obtained using the double L-scan technique over a broad spectral range (450-750 nm) using 90 fs pulses at 50 Hz repetition rate produced by an amplified femtosecond system. The theoretical calculations were performed using modern analytical response theory within the time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) approach using CAM-B3LYP and 6-311++G(d,p) basis sets.
