Programming and Dynamic Control of the Circular Polarization of Luminescence from an Achiral Fluorescent Dye in a Liquid Crystal Host by Molecular Motors

Jiaxin Hou; Ryojun Toyoda; Stefan C J Meskers; Ben L Feringa

doi:10.1002/anie.202206310

Programming and Dynamic Control of the Circular Polarization of Luminescence from an Achiral Fluorescent Dye in a Liquid Crystal Host by Molecular Motors

Angew Chem Int Ed Engl. 2022 Oct 10;61(41):e202206310. doi: 10.1002/anie.202206310. Epub 2022 Sep 5.

Authors

Jiaxin Hou^{1

2}, Ryojun Toyoda^{1

3}, Stefan C J Meskers⁴, Ben L Feringa^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Stratingh Institute for Chemistry, University of Groningen, Nijenborgh 4, 9747, AG Groningen, The Netherlands.
² SCNU-UG International Joint Laboratory of Molecular Science and Displays, National Center for International Research on Green Optoelectronics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou, 510006, China.
³ Department of Chemistry, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University, 6-3 Aramaki-Aza-Aoba, Aobaku, Sendai 980-8578, Japan.
⁴ Molecular Materials and Nanosystems, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600, MB Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

Abstract

Circular polarized light is utilized in communication and display technologies and a major challenge is to develop systems that can be switched between left and right circular polarized luminescence with high degrees of polarization and enable multiple addressable stable states. Luminescent dyes in Liquid Crystal (LC) cholesteric phases are attractive systems to generate, amplify and modulate circularly polarized luminescence (CPL). In the present study, we employ light-driven molecular motors as photo-controlled chiral dopants in LCs to switch the handedness of the LC and the circular polarization of luminescence from an achiral dye embedded in the mesogenic material. Tuning of the color of the CPL and the retention time of the photoprogrammed helicity is demonstrated making use of a variety of motors and dyes. The flexibility offered by the design based on inherently chiral unidirectional rotary motors provides full control over CPL non-invasively by light, opening possibilities for pixilated displays with externally addressable polarization.

Keywords: Achiral Fluorescent Dye; Circular Polarization of Luminescence; Liquid Crystal; Molecular Motors.

Abstract

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