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journal article·2022Open access

Excited states engineering enables efficient near-infrared lasing in nanographenes

Giuseppe M. Paternò, Qiang Chen, Rafael Muñoz-Mármol, Michele Guizzardi, Víctor Bonal, Ryota Kabe, Alexander J. Barker, Pedro G. Boj, Shreyam Chatterjee, Yutaka Ie, José M. Villalvilla, José A. Quintana, Francesco Scotognella, Klaus Müllen, María A. Díaz-García, Akimitsu Narita, Guglielmo Lanzani

Materials Horizons· Volume 9· Issue 1
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Source abstract

Abstract

The spectral overlap between stimulated emission (SE) and absorption from dark states (i.e. charges and triplets) especially in the near-infrared (NIR), represents one of the most effective gain loss channels in organic semiconductors. Recently, bottom-up synthesis of atomically precise graphene nanostructures, or nanographenes (NGs), has opened a new route for the development of environmentally and chemically stable materials with optical gain properties. However, also in this case, the interplay between gain and absorption losses has hindered the attainment of efficient lasing action in the NIR. Here, we demonstrate that the introduction of two fluoranthene imide groups to the NG core leads to a more red-shifted emission than the precursor NG molecule (685 vs. 615 nm) and also with a larger Stokes shift (45 nm vs. 2 nm, 1026 cm-1vs. 53 cm-1, respectively). Photophysical results indicate that, besides the minimisation of ground state absorption losses, such substitution permits to suppress the detrimental excited state absorption in the NIR, which likely arises from a dark state with charge-transfer character and triplets. This has enabled NIR lasing (720 nm) from all-solution processed distributed feedback devices with one order of magnitude lower thresholds than those of previously reported NIR-emitting NGs. This study represents an advance in the field of NGs and, in general, organic semiconductor photonics, towards the development of cheap and stable NIR lasers.
Source: europepmc · Quality: candidate unverified · Source record ↗

Research context

NanomaterialsElectronic materials

OpenAlex topics: Luminescence and Fluorescent Materials · Organic Light-Emitting Diodes Research · Graphene research and applications

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

Affiliations

Center for Nano Science and Technology, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Via Pascoli 10, 20133, Milano, Italy

Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, 55128, Mainz, Germany

Departamento de Física Aplicada and Instituto Universitario de Materiales de Alicante, Universidad de Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain

Physics Department, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci 32, 20133 Milano, Italy

Organic Optoelectronics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan

Departamento de Óptica, Farmacología y Anatomía and Instituto Universitario de Materiales de Alicante, Universidad de Alicante, 03080 Alicante, Spain

The Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research (SANKEN), Osaka University, 8-1 Mihogaoka, Ibaraki, Osaka 567-0047, Japan

Institute of Physical Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Duesbergweg 10-14, 55128 Mainz, Germany

Organic and Carbon Nanomaterials Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, 1919-1 Tancha, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan

Funding

Max-Planck-Gesellschaft · Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad · Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University · Fondazione Cariplo · Gutenberg Forschungskolleg · European Regional Development Fund · Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz · Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación · Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft

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