Spontaneous formation of metastable orientation with well-organized permanent dipole moment in organic glassy films

The performance of organic optoelectronic and energy-harvesting devices is largely determined by the molecular orientation and resultant permanent dipole moment, yet this property is difficult to control during film preparation. Here, we demonstrate the active control of dipole direction-that is, vector direction and magnitude-in organic glassy films by physical vapour deposition. An organic glassy film with metastable permanent dipole moment orientation can be obtained by utilizing the small surface free energy of a trifluoromethyl unit and intramolecular permanent dipole moment induced by functional groups. The proposed molecular design rule could pave a way toward the formation of spontaneously polarized organic glassy films, leading to improvement in the performance of organic molecular devices.