Absorption spectroscopy of nonlinear excitations in polyaniline

We present near steady state photoinduced absorption spectra of two forms of polyaniline. Both the emeraldine base (nondegenerate ground state) and pernigraniline (degenerate ground state) exhibit long lived photoinduced nonlinear excitations with transient absorptions within the π→π* gap. In the case of the emeraldine base, two well-resolved photoinduced absorption bands are observed with maxima at 0.9 and 1.47 eV, accompanied by a bleaching of the 2 eV absorption edge. The different relaxation rates of the two bands indicate that they arise from two independent photoinduced nonlinear excitations. The results are discussed in terms of intrachain and interchain excitations. The possibility of deep traps on defect sites in pernigraniline is suggested.