Fluorescence depolarization in the presence of excitation energy migration in partly ordered polymer films

Excitation energy migration is studied for 3,3′-diethylthiacyanine iodide in uniaxially stretched and unstretched poly(vinyl alcohol) films. Time-resolved and steady-state measurements of fluorescence depolarization yield quite different results for disordered and partly ordered systems. Contrary to disordered systems, for which strong concentration depolarization was observed, partly ordered systems exhibit much weaker depolarization as a result of preferential angular distribution of transition dipole moments of identical fluorophores participating in energy migration. Difference of the same origin was found for time-resolved emission anisotropy measurements. These results are in agreement with those obtained from the Monte-Carlo simulation.