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Phosphorescence detection as the first step toward all-optical spin manipulation in single perylene molecules

Robert Smit1,*, Boleslaw Kozankiewicz2, and Michel Orrit1

  • *Contact author: rsmit@physics.leidenuniv.nl
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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023111 – Published 4 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/vlfy-134r

Abstract

The on-demand manipulation of triplet states in closed-shell single molecules is still out of reach due to a lack of information about the energy of those triplet states. Yet, the access to triplet states would open up a route toward an all-optical single-molecule photonic switch/transistor and, moreover, would provide a way of performing coherent spin operations from the spinless ground state. In this work, we take an important step toward those aims by measuring the triplet energy from the weak phosphorescence signal of perdeuterated perylene, embedded as a guest molecule in a dibenzothiophene host matrix, which well preserves the coherence properties of the perylene guest. We find that perylene’s phosphorescence can be enhanced in this host matrix, when acting as an intermediary for the generation of triplet excitons. The triplet energy that we find can be used to significantly narrow down the search for the ultraweak spin-forbidden transitions from the ground singlet to the triplet states of a single molecule.

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Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023111– Published 4 May, 2026
  • Received 30 June 2025
  • Accepted 12 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

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