Ultrafast Coherent Hole Injection at the Interface between CuSCN and Polymer PM6 Using Femtosecond Mid-Infrared Spectroscopy

Tracking the dynamics of ultrafast hole injection into copper thiocyanate (CuSCN) at the interface can be experimentally challenging. These challenges include restrictions in accessing the ultraviolet spectral range through transient electronic spectroscopy, where the absorption spectrum of CuSCN is located. Time-resolved vibrational spectroscopy solves this problem by tracking marker modes at specific frequencies and allowing direct access to dynamical information at the molecular level at donor–acceptor interfaces in real time. This study uses photoabsorber PM6 (poly[(2,6-(4,8-bis(5-(2-ethylhexyl-3-fluoro)thiophen-2-yl)-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene))-alt-(5,5-(1′,3′-di-2-thienyl-5′,7′-bis(2-ethylhexyl)-benzo[1′,2′-c:4′,5′-c′]dithiophene-4,8-dione))]) as a model system to explore and decipher the hole transfer dynamics of CuSCN using femtosecond (fs) mid-infrared (IR) spectroscopy. The time-resolved results indicate that excited PM6 exhibits a sharp vibrational mode at 1599 cm–1attributed to the carbonyl group, matching the predicted frequency position obtained from time-dependent density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The fs mid-IR spectroscopy demonstrates a fast formation (<168 fs) and blue spectral shift of the CN stretching vibration from 2118 cm–1for CuSCN alone to 2180 cm–1for PM6/CuSCN, confirming the hole transfer from PM6 to CuSCN. The short interfacial distance and high frontier orbital delocalization obtained from the interfacial DFT models support a coherent and ultrafast regime for hole transfer. These results provide direct evidence for hole injection at the interface of CuSCN for the first time using femtosecond mid-IR spectroscopy and serve as a new investigative approach for interfacial chemistry and solar cell communities.