Thermally Activated Lasing in Organic Microcrystals toward Laser Displays

• Published in: Journal of the American Chemical Society 2021-12, Vol.143 (48), p.20249-20255
• Main Authors: Zhang, Tongjin, Zhou, Zhonghao, Liu, Xiaolong, Wang, Kang, Fan, Yuqing, Zhang, Chuang, Yao, Jiannian, Yan, Yongli, Zhao, Yong Sheng
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0002-7863; 1520-5126
• DOI: 10.1021/jacs.1c08824

Thermally activated delayed fluorescent (TADF) materials are promising to overcome triplet-induced optical loss in the pursuit of electrically pumped organic lasers. However, population inversion is difficult to establish in these materials due to the severe suppression of triplet-to-singlet upconversion in their condensed states. In this work, we report thermally activated lasing in solution-processed coassembled microcrystals, where TADF dyes were uniformly dispersed into crystalline matrices to ensure an efficient reverse intersystem crossing (RISC). The dark-state triplet excitons harvested by the RISC were effectively converted into radiative singlet excitons, which subsequently participated in the population inversion to boost lasing with an unusual temperature dependence. The lasing wavelength was tuned over the full visible spectrum by doping various TADF laser dyes, owing to the excellent compatibility. Trichromatic TADF microlasers were precisely patterned into periodic pixelated arrays by a template-confined solution-growth method. With as-prepared TADF microlaser arrays as display panels, vivid laser displays were achieved under programmable excitation. These results offer valuable enlightenment to minimize triplet state-related energy losses toward high-performance lasers.