Anomalous circularly polarized light emission in organic light-emitting diodes caused by orbital-momentum locking
File(s)NatPhoton_hel.pdf (730.3 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Wan, Li
Yizhou, Liu
Fuchter, Matthew
Yan, Binghai
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Chiral circularly polarized (CP) light is central to many photonic technologies, from optical communication of spin information to novel display and imaging technologies. As such, there has been significant effort in the development of chiral emissive materials that allow for the emission of strongly dissymmetric CP light from organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). A consensus for chiral emission in such devices is that the molecular chirality of the active layer determines the favored light handedness of CP emission, regardless of the light-emitting direction. Here, we discover that, unconventionally, oppositely propagating CP light exhibits opposite handedness and reversing the current-flow in OLEDs also switches the handedness of the emitted CP light. This direction-dependent CP emission boosts the net polarization rate by orders of magnitude by resolving an established issue in CP-OLEDs, where the CP light reflected by the back electrode typically erodes the measured dissymmetry. Through detailed theoretical analysis, we assign this anomalous CP emission to a ubiquitous topological electronic property in chiral materials, namely the orbital-momentum locking. Our work paves the way to design new chiroptoelectronic devices and probes the close connections between chiral materials, topological electrons, and CP light in the quantum regime.
Date Issued
2023-02-01
Date Acceptance
2022-10-19
Citation
Nature Photonics, 2023, 17, pp.193-199
ISSN
1749-4885
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
193
End Page
199
Journal / Book Title
Nature Photonics
Volume
17
Copyright Statement
This paper is embargoed until publication. For the purpose of open access, the author has applied a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence to any Author Accepted Manuscript version arising.
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2022-12-05