Whispering-gallery-mode microlaser based on self-assembled organic single-crystalline hexagonal microdisks

Polarized three-photon-pumped laser in a single MOF microcrystal

Higher order multiphoton-pumped polarized lasers have fundamental technological importance. Although they can be used to in vivo imaging, their application has yet to be realized. Here we show the first polarized three-photon-pumped (3PP) microcavity laser in a single host-guest composite metal-organic framework (MOF) crystal, via a controllable in situ self-assembly strategy. The highly oriented assembly of dye molecules within the MOF provides an opportunity to achieve 3PP lasing with a low lasing threshold and a very high-quality factor on excitation. Furthermore, the 3PP lasing generated from composite MOF is perfectly polarized. These findings may eventually open up a new route to the exploitation of multiphoton-pumped solid-state laser in single MOF microcrystal (or nanocrystal) for future optoelectronic and biomedical applications.

Organic nanophotonic materials: the relationship between excited-state processes and photonic performances

Organic active nanophotonics: excited-state coupled photonic behaviours strongly determine the optical performances of organic nanomaterials. The photonic actions and related material properties can be well controlled by tailoring the intra/inter-molecular excited-state processes.

Wafer-Scale Precise Patterning of Organic Single-Crystal Nanowire Arrays via a Photolithography-Assisted Spin-Coating Method

A photolithography-assisted spin-coating approach is developed to produce single-crystal organic nanowire (NW) arrays at designated locations with high precision and high efficiency. This strategy enables the large-scale fabrication of organic NW arrays with nearly the same accuracy, reliability, and flexibility as photolithography. The high mobilities of the organic NWs enable the control of the switch of multicolored light-emitting devices with good stability.

An Organic Microlaser Array Based on a Lateral Microcavity of a Single J-aggregation Microbelt

A laser array on the nano- and microscale is a key component for integration in photonic devices, but remains a challenge when using semiconductor nanowire lasers. Here we report a low-threshold lateral-cavity microlaser, formed between two lateral-faces of a single-crystalline organic microbelt (OMB) of 1,4-dimethoxy-2,5-di[4'-(cyano)styryl]benzene (COPV). By cutting a single OMB into six pieces by a top-down two-photon processing technique, we successfully fabricated a compact and uniform 1×6 microlaser array along the length direction of the OMB. The microlasers had excellent reproducibility and addressable high precision, thus making them attractive candidates as miniaturized coherent light sources for future nanophotonics.

Revealing the charge-transfer interactions in self-assembled organic cocrystals: two-dimensional photonic applications

A new crystal of a charge-transfer (CT) complex was prepared through supramolecular assembly and it has unique two-dimensional (2D) morphology. The CT nature of the ground and excited states of this new Bpe-TCNB cocrystal (BTC) were confirmed by electron spin resonance measurements, spectroscopic studies, and theoretical calculations, thus providing a comprehensive understanding of the CT interactions in organic donor-acceptor systems. And the lowest CT1 excitons are responsible for the efficient photoluminescence (Φ(PL)=19%), which can actively propagate in individual 2D BTCs without anisotropy, thus implying that the optical waveguide property of the crystal is not related to the molecular stacking structure. This unique 2D CT cocrystal exhibits potential for use in functional photonic devices in the next-generation optoelectronic communications.

Shape-engineering of self-assembled organic single microcrystal as optical microresonator for laser applications

Single micro/nanocrystals based on π-conjugated organic molecules have caused tremendous interests in the optoelectronic applications in laser, optical waveguide, nonlinear optics, and field effect transistors. However, the controlled synthesis of these organic micro/nanocrystals with regular shapes is very difficult to achieve, because the weak interaction (van der Waals' force, ca. 5 kJ/mol) between organic molecules could not dominate the kinetic process of crystal growth. Herein, we develop an elaborate strategy, selective adhesion to organic crystal plane by the hydrogen-bonding interaction (ca. 40 kJ/mol), for modulating the kinetic process of the formation of microcrystal, which leads to the self-assembly of one organic molecule 3-[4-(dimethylamino)phenyl]-1-(2-hy-droxyphenyl)prop-2-en-1-on (HDMAC) into one-dimensional (1D) microwires and 2D microdisks respectively. Furthermore, these as-prepared microcrystals demonstrate shape-dependent microresonator properties that 1D microwires act as Fabry-Pérot (FP) mode lasing resonator and 2D microdisks provide the whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) resonator for lasing oscillator. More significantly, through the investigation of the size-effect on the laser performance, single-mode lasing at red wavelength was successfully achieved in the self-assembled 2D organic microdisk at room temperature. These easily fabricated organic single-crystalline microcrystals with controlled shapes are the natural laser sources, which offer considerable promise for the multi-functionalities of coherent light devices integrated on the optics microchip.