A universal strategy for multicolor organic circularly polarized afterglow materials with high dissymmetry factors.

Yin, Chenjia; Sun, Siyu; Yan, Zi-Ang; Hu, Honglong; Jiang, Ping; Xu, Zhuoran; Tian, He; Ma, Xiang · Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Materials with pure organic circularly polarized afterglow (CPA) have attracted significant attention due to their spatiotemporal-resolved optical properties, yet achieving simultaneous high dissymmetry factor (glum) and multicolor ultralong emission remains a challenge. Here, we establish a universal energy transfer-photon coupling strategy to realize CPA spanning from blue to red with record-high glum (up to 1.90) and ultralong lifetimes (>6 s). Systematic characterization of nonchiral donor-acceptor systems (TP-BPEA, TP-Fluo, etc.) reveals the absence of ground-state chiral centers (<i>g</i><sub>CD</sub> ≈ 0) and orientation artifacts (<i>LD</i> < 10<sup>-7</sup>), confirming the key role of cholesteric liquid crystal polymer in chirality induction. This spatiotemporal synergy between energy transfer (wavelength modulation) and photonic engineering (polarization control) provides a framework for chiral photonic materials, with potential implications for multidimensional information encryption.