Quantum mechanics

Quark

Gamma-ray burst

Statistics

Realization (probability)

Materials science

Phosphorescence

Nambu–Jona-Lasinio model

Excitation

Component (thermodynamics)

Afterglow

Molecule

Computer science

Wavelength

Thermodynamics

Physics

Microstrip

Nanotechnology

Cluster (spacecraft)

Mathematics

Optics

Astronomy

Luminescence

Fluorescence

Circular polarization

Chirality (physics)

Programming language

Chiral symmetry breaking

Optoelectronics

Nature Communications

Circularly polarized organic afterglow (CPOA) with both long-lived room-temperature phosphorescence (RTP) and circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is currently attracting great interest, but the development of multicolor-tunable CPOA in a single-component material remains a formidable challenge. Here, we report an efficient strategy to achieve multicolor CPOA molecules through chiral clusterization by implanting chirality center into non-conjugated organic cluster. Owing to excitation-dependent emission of clusters, highly efficient and significantly tuned CPOA emissions from blue to yellowish-green with dissymmetry factor over 2.3 × 10 −3 and lifetime up to 587 ms are observed under different excitation wavelengths. With the distinguished color-tunable CPOA, the multicolor CPL displays and visual RTP detection of ultraviolent light wavelength are successfully constructed. These results not only provide a new paradigm for realization of multicolor-tunable CPOA materials in single-component molecular systems, but also offer new opportunities for expanding the applicability of CPL and RTP materials for diversified applications.

Single-component color-tunable circularly polarized organic afterglow through chiral clusterization