Floquet spin states in OLEDs

Nat Commun. 2021 Jan 19;12(1):465. doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-20148-6.

Abstract

Electron and hole spins in organic light-emitting diodes constitute prototypical two-level systems for the exploration of the ultrastrong-drive regime of light-matter interactions. Floquet solutions to the time-dependent Hamiltonian of pairs of electron and hole spins reveal that, under non-perturbative resonant drive, when spin-Rabi frequencies become comparable to the Larmor frequencies, hybrid light-matter states emerge that enable dipole-forbidden multi-quantum transitions at integer and fractional g-factors. To probe these phenomena experimentally, we develop an electrically detected magnetic-resonance experiment supporting oscillating driving fields comparable in amplitude to the static field defining the Zeeman splitting; and an organic semiconductor characterized by minimal local hyperfine fields allowing the non-perturbative light-matter interactions to be resolved. The experimental confirmation of the predicted Floquet states under strong-drive conditions demonstrates the presence of hybrid light-matter spin excitations at room temperature. These dressed states are insensitive to power broadening, display Bloch-Siegert-like shifts, and are suggestive of long spin coherence times, implying potential applicability for quantum sensing.