Local order in amorphous organic molecular thin films

Thin films of many molecular materials are considered 'amorphous' because t hey possess no detectable long-range order. However, we show that the fluor escence spectrum of polar molecules may shift due to the formation of order ed polar domains within an otherwise amorphous film. A model is derived to explain this shift and the associated quenching of luminescence as domains are formed. We demonstrate that the inclusion of dipole-dipole intermolecul ar correlations has a significant effect on calculations of the electronic properties of organic amorphous thin films. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.