Recently, the world’s first room-temperature maser was demonstrated. The maser consisted of a sapphire ring housing a crystal of pentacene-doped p-terphenyl, pumped by a pulsed rhodamine-dye laser. Stimulated emission of microwaves was aided by the high quality factor and small magnetic mode volume of the maser cavity yet the peak optical pumping power was 1.4 kW. Here we report dramatic miniaturization and 2 orders of magnitude reduction in optical pumping power for a room-temperature maser by coupling a strontium titanate resonator with the spin-polarized population inversion provided by triplet states in an optically excited pentacene-doped p-terphenyl crystal. We observe maser emission in a thimble-sized resonator using a xenon flash lamp as an optical pump source with peak optical power of 70 W. This is a significant step towards the goal of continuous maser operation.

A computational molecular design strategy, complemented by UV/Vis absorption and time-resolved electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra measurements, is employed to guide the search for active molecules for a room-temperature maser that can achieve continuous-wave operation. Focusing on linear polyacenes and diazasubstituted forms, our goal is to model how important maser properties are inuenced by acene length and location of nitrogen substitution. We nd that tetracene, its diaza-substituted forms (5,11-, 1,7-and 2,8-diazatetracene) and anthracene possess singlet to triplet intersystem crossing rates highly favorable towards masing. The diaza-substituted forms of pentacene (6,13-, 5,12-, 1,8-and 2,9-diazapentacene) also stand out as ideal candidates due to their similarity to the working pentacene prototype. A steady-state population analysis suggests the working conditions under which continuous-wave masing can be achieved for these molecules. Operational frequencies are estimated from calculated zero eld splitting parameters.

The performance of a room temperature, zero-field MASER operating at 1.45 GHz has been examined. Nanosecond laser pulses, which are essentially instantaneous on the timescale of the spin dynamics, allow the visible-to-microwave conversion efficiency and temporal response of the MASER to be measured as a function of excitation energy. It is observed that the timing and amplitude of the MASER output pulse are correlated with the laser excitation energy: at higher laser energy, the microwave pulses have larger amplitude and appear after shorter delay than those recorded at lower laser energy. Seeding experiments demonstrate that the output variation may be stabilized by an external source and establish the minimum seeding power required. The dynamics of the MASER emission may be modeled by a pair of first order, non-linear differential equations, derived from the Lotka-Volterra model (Predator-Prey), where by the microwave mode of the resonator is the predator and the spin polarization in the triplet state of pentacene is the prey. Simulations allowed the Einstein coefficient of stimulated emission, the spin-lattice relaxation and the number of triplets contributing to the MASER emission to be estimated. These are essential parameters for the rational improvement of a MASER based on a spin-polarized triplet molecule.

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The molecular design of organic battery electrodes is a big challenge. Here, we synthesize two metal‐free organosulfur acenes and shed insight into battery properties using first‐principles calculations. A new zone‐melting chemical‐vapor‐transport (ZM‐CVT) apparatus was fabricated to provide a simple, solvent‐free, and continuous synthetic protocol, and produce single crystals of tetrathiotetracene (TTT) and hexathiapentacene (HTP) at a large scale. Single crystals of HTP showed better Li‐ion battery performance and higher cycling stability than those of TTT. A two‐step, three‐electron lithiation mechanism instead of the commonly depicted two‐electron mechanism is proposed for the HTP Li‐ion battery. The superior performance of HTP is linked to unique trisulfide bonding scenarios, which are also responsible for the formation of empty channels along the stacking direction. In‐depth theoretical analysis suggests that organosulfur acenes are potential prototypes for organic battery materials with tunable properties, and that the tuning of sulfur bonds is critical in designing these new materials.