We have studied the low-energy electronic excitations of solid picene at 20 K using momentum dependent electron energy-loss spectroscopy. Our results demonstrate the presence of five excitonic features below the transport energy gap of picene, which all are characterized by a negligible dispersion. One of these excitons has not been observed in the optical absorption spectrum of picene molecules in solution and thus is assigned to a (solid-state induced) charge transfer exciton. This conclusion is supported by the momentum dependent intensity variation of this exciton which clearly signals a significant dipole forbidden contribution, in contrast to the other low energy excitations.
@article{arxiv.1103.3935,
title = {Exciton character in picene molecular solids},
author = {Friedrich Roth and Benjamin Mahns and Bernd Büchner and Martin Knupfer},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1103.3935},
year = {2011}
}