Excitation Energy Migration in a Photonic Dye-Zeolite Antenna: Computational Techniques

Abstract

Excitation energy migration between dyes embedded in hexagonal crystals of cylinder morphology is an attractive phenomenon for the construction of photonic antennae [1, 2]. Detailed knowledge of the zeolite structure, the organization and the spectroscopic properties of the dyes and the nature and strength of the host-guest interactions is required to optimize energy migration (EnM). Whether a dye-zeolite antenna efficiently transports excitation energy is mainly determined by the mechanism and rate of energy transfer (EnT) between the dyes embedded in the zeolite channels. The decay of the luminescence of these dyes, which reveals information about the EnT, is measured indirectly using Multi-Frequency Phase Fluorimetry (MFPF). Subsequently a fit of the measured data to a multiexponential decay is performed. A new, user-friendly Windows software has been developed which performs this fit, allowing full control over all fit parameters and providing useful information about the quality of the fit. The software also contains a database capable of storing all the relevant information related to the experiment. It is therefore a highly optimized analysis and managing tool for our experimental method which has greatly improved the efficiency of data analysis. The software is highly flexible and can easily be adapted to other experimental methods.