Abstract Details


Xingyuan Shi

Postdog at Imperial College London

Xingyuan Shi

Postdog at Imperial College London

Abstract Name:

On the Strong Chiroptical Effect Induced in Fluorene-Based Polymers: Physical Insights and Device Opportunities via Conformational and Intermolecular Phase Control

Symposium:

Symposium C: Electronic & Photonic Devices

Topic:

C5: Photonic Waveguide Technologies

Abstract Contributing Authors:

Xingyuan Shi 1,3) Jessica Wade 2,3) Li Wan 1,3),‡ Giuliano Siligardi 4) and Matthew J. Fuchter 1,3) 1 Department of Chemistry and Molecular Sciences Research Hub, Imperial College, 80 Wood Lane, London W12 0BZ, United Kingdom 2 Department of Materials, Royal School of Mines, Imperial College, South Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom 3 Centre for Processable Electronics, Imperial College, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom 4 B23 Diamond Light Source, Harwell Science and Innovation Campus, Didcot OX11 0GD, United Kingdom ‡ Present address: Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics, Weinberg 2, D-06120 Halle (Saale), Germany

Abstract Body:

Despite recent advances in circularly polarised (CP) OLEDs based on fluorene-based polymer–chiral small molecule blends [1–3], mechanism of the sizable chiroptical effect induced in these emissive media remains elusive.

A property inherent to solution-processable polymers is their large conformational and intermolecular phase space, which generally poses a curse on the performance of relevant (opto)electronic devices. However, meanwhile, conformational freedom can be harnessed to provide mechanistic insights, as well as opportunities for downstream optoelectronic/photonic device applications, as we show in the present work.

Here we exploit the rich conformational polymorphs of poly(9,9-dioctylfluorene) (PFO), and especially its (chir)optically distinct, planarised, and extended chain geometry. We demonstrate a simple yet elegant approach to unravelling the dominant contribution to the large chiroptical effect induced in the PFO–helicene blends. Such an approach combines informed material phase processing [4] with chiroptical (e.g., ECD and Mueller Matrix Polarimetry) probes. Capitalising on the physical insights gained from the said PFO–helicene system, we extend the exploratory study to chiral-sidechain polyfluorene-based polymer counterparts (namely, cPFBT and cPF) [5], and unpick why they could afford more versatile control of the induced chiroptical response (leading to, e.g., patterned structures with countersign CD), which in turn opens up prospects for chirowaveguiding and CP-based anticounterfeiting applications [6].

[1] Y. Yang et al., Adv. Mater. 25, 2624 (2013)
[2] L. Wan et al., ACS Nano, 13, 8099 (2019)
[3] L. Wan et al., Adv. Optical Mater., 19, 2100066 (2021)
[4] X. Shi et al., Phys. Rev. X. 9, 021038 (2019)
[5] J. Wade et al., Nat. Commun. 11, 6137 (2020)
[6] X. Shi et al., Unpublished, n.d.

Submission Type:

Poster

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