Organic Single Crystal Lasers: A Materials View

Abstract

Materials design has become a vigorous aspect for organic solid‐state lasing, which often lacks a fundamental understanding of structure–property relationships. The development of such an understanding is undertaken in this progress report, which systematically explores the now‐available libraries of organic single crystals exhibiting light amplification under optical pumping. By doing so, intra‐ and intermolecular contributions are disentangled for the non‐/occurrence, type, threshold, wavelength, and polarization of the light amplification processes, opening the path to targeted materials design.

Protein‐like Enwrapped Perylene Bisimide Chromophore as a Bright Microcrystalline Emitter Material

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Strongly emissive solid-state materials are mandatory components for many emerging optoelectronic technologies,but fluorescence is often quenched in the solid state owing to strong intermolecular interactions.T he design of new organic pigments,w hichr etain their optical properties despite their high tendency to crystallize, could overcome such limitations.H erein, we showanew material with monomerlike absorption and emission profiles as well as fluorescence quantum yields over 90 %i ni ts crystalline solid state.T he material was synthesized by attaching two bulky tris(4-tertbutylphenyl)phenoxy substituents at the perylene bisimide bay positions.These substituents direct apackingarrangement with full enwrapping of the chromophore and unidirectional chromophore alignment within the crystal lattice to afford optical properties that resemble those of their natural pigment counterparts,inwhich chromophores are rigidly embedded in protein environments.Solid-state fluorescent organic materials [1][2][3] are of considerable interest as they enable abroad variety of applications in (opto-)electronics,f or example,o rganic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), [4] waveguiding, [5,6] solid-state lasers [7][8][9] luminescent sensors, [10] or as fluorescent labels for (bio)medical research [11] as well as security printing technologies. [12] Unfortunately,while pigments are the preferred colorants for these applications compared to dyes owing to their superior thermal, photochemical, and chemical robustness,o nly very few pigments exhibit ad ecent fluorescence.

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“…Solid-state fluorescent organic materials [1][2][3] are of considerable interest as they enable abroad variety of applications in (opto-)electronics,f or example,o rganic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), [4] waveguiding, [5,6] solid-state lasers [7][8][9] luminescent sensors, [10] or as fluorescent labels for (bio)medical research [11] as well as security printing technologies. [12] Unfortunately,while pigments are the preferred colorants for these applications compared to dyes owing to their superior thermal, photochemical, and chemical robustness,o nly very few pigments exhibit ad ecent fluorescence.…”

Organic Single‐Crystalline Semiconductors for Light‐Emitting Applications: Recent Advances and Developments

“…Comparing 2,5‐bis(4‐biphenylyl)thiophene (BP1T) and 1,4‐bis(5‐phenylthiophen‐2‐yl)benzene (AC5), increasing the proportion of thiophene rings at a certain ring number induces a successive redshift of emission. For constitutional isomers, BP3T with direct connection of the thiophene rings favors larger redshifts compared to the thiophenes and phenylenes alternating case 2,5‐bis[4‐(50‐phenylthiophen‐20‐yl)phenyl]thiophene (AC'7) . Through mutually arranging the thiophenes and phenylenes within the molecules, the TPCOs can realize a desired full‐color emission (as shown in Figure e).…”

“…Among them, organic single‐crystalline semiconductors (OSCSs) constructed by π‐conjugated molecules in long‐range periodic order have emerged as a unique optoelectrical material . Their defined structures provide an opportunity to investigate the impact of the basic molecular interactions on the structure–property relationships and reveal fundamental physics in organic semiconductors.…”

“…This enthusiasm for the study of OSCSs has extended the applications range to various high‐performance and low‐cost optoelectronic devices. A series of broad reviews highlighting the most important progress obtained by OSCSs has finished in different aspects including growth strategies, materials design, and device applications . However, none of the reviews so far has focused on the electrical‐pumping light‐emitting behavior, which is not only scientifically important but also technologically imperative for EL devices.…”