Color-tunable resonant photoluminescence (PL) was attained from polystyrene microspheres doped with a single polymorphic fluorescent dye, boron-dipyrrin (BODIPY) 1. The color of the resonant PL depends on the assembling morphology of 1 in the microspheres, which can be selectively controlled from green to red by the initial concentration of 1 in the preparation process of the microspheres. Studies on intersphere PL propagation with multicoupled microspheres, prepared by micromanipulation technique, revealed that multistep photon transfer takes place through the microspheres, accompanying energy transfer cascade with stepwise PL color change. The intersphere energy transfer cascade is direction selective, where energy donor-to-acceptor down conversion direction is only allowed. Such cavity-mediated long-distance and multistep energy transfer will be advantageous for polymer photonics device application.

Low‐threshold organic microlasers are demanded for advanced optical applications such as nano/micrometer scale memory, sensing, and communication tools, and further valuable for future electrically driven laser applications. In this paper, it is demonstrated that various highly fluorescent conjugated polymers self‐assemble to form single‐component microspheres that exhibit, upon femtosecond pumping to a single microsphere, whispering gallery mode (WGM) lasing with blue, green, and red emission colors. In particular, the microsphere consisting of polyfluorene shows the lowest threshold fluence as low as 1.5 µJ cm−2 and high photostability against successive pumping of >105 pulse. The threshold fluence is further reduced by one fourth (0.37 µJ cm−2) by mounting the microspheres on an Ag‐coated substrate, where a mirror effect of the Ag layer enhances efficiency of the photoluminescence confinement with a minor effect of plasmonic near‐field. Considering the intrinsic charge injection and transport properties, π‐conjugated polymer microsphere resonators will be possible materials for electrically pumped WGM luminescence.

π-conjugated organic microcrystals often act as optical resonators in which the generated photons in the crystal are confined by the reflection at the crystalline facets and interfere to gain lasing action. Here, we fabricate microcrystals from a mixture of carbon-bridged oligo- para-phenylenevinylenes (COPVs) with energy-donor (D) and energy-acceptor (A) characters. Upon weak excitation of the single D-A co-crystal, Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) takes place, exhibiting spontaneous emission from A. In contrast, upon strong pumping, stimulated emission occurs before FRET, generating lasing action from D. Lasing occurs with single- and dual-vibronic levels, and the lasing wavelength can be modulated by the doping amount of A. Time-resolved spectroscopic studies reveal that the rate constant of lasing is more than 20 times greater than that of FRET. Furthermore, microcrystals, vertically grown on a Ag-coated substrate, reduce the lasing threshold by one-fourth. This study proposes possible directions toward organic solid FRET lasers with microcrystalline resonators.

Photochromic microresonator arrays with whispering gallery mode fingerprints are successfully prepared, which function as high-security optical authentication microdevices.

Colloidal crystallization of poly­(vinylidene fluoride) (PVDF) nanoparticles (NPs) and its β-phase transformation were studied. The pristine PVDF NPs with an average diameter of 230 nm consist of 46% α-phase and 54% amorphous PVDF. The PVDF NPs were assembled on a quartz substrate by means of vertical deposition method from a tetrahydrofuran dispersion of PVDF NPs with a few volume percentage of n-alkane. The resultant colloidal thin films displayed a pale-greenish structural color with the selective reflection at around 550 nm wavelength due to closely packed PVDF NPs. The colloidal thin films were immersed into an acetonitrile solution containing 2 wt % ionic liquid, subsequently air-dried, and thermally annealed at 140 °C, just below the melting point of the PVDF–IL blends. After annealing, the PVDF NPs partially transformed into its β-phase with the volume percentages of α-, β-, and amorphous phases of 22, 32, and 46%, respectively. The postannealed colloidal films still maintained the face-centered-cubic assembling structure of PVDF NPs, thus displaying the greenish structural color and selective reflection.