Optical dephasing in pentacene-doped PMMA under high pressure

Pressure and temperature-dependent photon echo results are obtained for pentacene doped polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). A unique pressure effect is observed in which the optical dephasing rate increases as the pressure is increased from ambient pressure to kbar, above which the optical dephasing rate is pressure independent up to 43 kbar. The present results are also compared with pressure and temperature-dependent photon echo results for rhodamine 101 in PMMA, in which the optical dephasing rate was completely insensitive to pressure over the range 0 to 30 kbar. A negative correlation is also observed between the optical dephasing rate and the spectral hole burning efficiency. Line broadening due to pressure induced spectral diffusion may he responsible for both the increased dephasing rate and the reduced spectral hole-burning at high pressure. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.