Programming Dual-Color Circularly Polarized Luminescence with Self-Organized Soft Photonic Helix

Circularly polarized light has the potential to significantly impact light-matter interactions and offers new opportunities and progresses for breakthroughs in various fields. Programming circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with both multiple colors and high luminescence dissymmetry factor (glum) is a fantastic technique for photonic applications, such as information coding, high-dimensional transmission, and CPL display. However, it is still a formidable challenge to balance the coupling between photonic bandgap (PBG) and material-induced luminescence for achieving multi-color CPL with high glum. Here a unique microcavity technology is reported that simultaneously allows for high glum and dual-color when the broad PBG entirely overlaps the fluorescence peak and the bandedge is maintained within the fluorescent range. Benefitting from the programmable dual-color CPL with tunable glum, an electric field-responsive CPL display with contrast ratios up to 34:1 is successfully implemented. Furthermore, a multichannel switchable encoder prototype integrated with CPL is established to analogize an information encoding and multichannel transmission in a more convenient and less costly way. This work presents a novel platform for investigating chiral photonics and facilitates a deeper comprehension of light-matter interactions in microcavity. The dual-color circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with high glum value is achieved by modulating dye emission through helical liquid crystal microcavity with a wide photonic bandgap. The electrically switchable CPL display and multichannel switchable encoder based on CPL are successfully constructed based on a simple microcavity structure, which could open up new avenues for programmable optical displays and optical communication.image

Automated summary

Circularly polarized light has the potential to significantly impact light-matter interactions and offers new opportunities for breakthroughs in various fields. This study presents a unique microcavity technology that achieves dual-color circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) with high luminescence dissymmetry factor (glum). Electric field-responsive CPL displays and multichannel switchable encoders are successfully implemented, providing new avenues for programmable optical displays and optical communication.