Simultaneous emission of orthogonal handedness in circular polarization from a single luminophore

Abstract

The direct emission of circularly polarized (CP) light improves the efficiency of an organic light-emitting diode and characterizes the secondary structure of proteins. In most cases, CP light is generated from a luminescent layer containing chiral characteristics, thereby generating only one kind of CP light in an entire device. Here, we propose direct CP light emissions using a twisted achiral conjugate polymer without any chiral dopant as an emitting layer (EML). The twisted structure is induced in the mesogenic conjugate polymer due to its elasticity by applying different alignment directions to its upper and lower interfaces. Furthermore, we demonstrate the simultaneous emission of orthogonal CP light in a single luminescent device by patterning different alignment directions on the surfaces of the EML. The light source with multipolarization including the orthogonal CP states is applicable to many applications in biosensors and optical devices.