Phosphorescent Liquid Crystalline Polymer-based Circularly Polarized Luminescence Optical Waveguides for Enhanced Photonic Signal Processing and Information Encryption

Abstract

Efficient circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) optical waveguides have significant potential for advancing photonic and optoelectronic devices. However, the development of CPL optical waveguides materials (OWMs) with low optical loss coefficient remains a considerable challenge. To overcome this, we design and synthesize CPL OWMs based on room-temperature phosphorescent liquid crystalline polymers (LCPs). Experimental results demonstrate that these LCPs exhibit a nematic liquid crystal phase and a phosphorescence lifetime of approximately 0.145 ms. By introducing a chiral dopant, we induce a chiral arrangement in the LCPs, followed by crosslinking via photo-cycloaddition and removal of the chiral dopants through solvent soaking. The resulting polymers exhibit stable solvent resistance and highly efficient circularly polarized phosphorescence (CPP) properties, with dissymmetric factors (g_RTP) in the range of 0.16 to 0.17. Notably, the CPP-active OWMs exhibit efficient circularly polarized photonic signal waveguiding, with an optical loss coefficient of approximately 0.175 dB/mm. Ultimately, these CPP-active OWMs are sucessfully applied in information encryption, decryption, and optical switching, paving the way for advanced photonic and optoelectronic devices.