Deuteration promotes circularly polarized light emission by suppression of vibration.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41413383.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-67342-y and PMC identifier 12820309.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Circularly polarized light (CPL) is critical for advancing photonic technologies such as spin-based optical communication, quantum computing and displays. Developing these technologies necessitates CPL emitters with large dissymmetry factor (g) and high quantum yield (Φ). However, there is an inherent trade-off between these two parameters. Here we integrate molecular deuteration into chiral thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters, leading to marked improvements in both g and Φ. Circularly polarized organic light-emitting diodes incorporating deuterated chiral TADF molecules as either emitters or host exhibit high performance, achieving maximum external quantum efficiency close to 40% and demonstrating up to over twofold enhanced electroluminescence g compared to hydrogenated counterparts. Such advancements are attributed to suppression of vibrations by deuteration. Our deuteration strategy sets a foundation for designing organic chiral emitters with large g and high Φ, paving the way for high-performance CPL in display technologies.