Rayleigh scattering and luminescence blue shift in tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum films

The Rayleigh scattering (RS) by independent small particles is a well-known effect which also accounts for the blue color of the sky. Lately, the blue shift of the greenish emission band of thin films of Alq3, tris(8-hydroxyquinoline)aluminum, after thermal treatments of various nature has been attributed to RS. Here, we show that RS effects cannot account for the observed spectral features, which are attributed to the onset of various molecular aggregations in the otherwise amorphous films, a morphological model already utilized to explain the optical properties of Alq3.