Low-Dimensional Organic Metal Halide Hybrids with Excitation-Dependent Optical Waveguides from Visible to Near-Infrared Emission

Molecular luminescent materials with
optical waveguide properties
have wide application prospects in the fields of sensors, filters,
and modulators. However, designing and synthesizing optical waveguide
materials with unique morphology, high emissive efficiency, and tunable
optical properties in the same solid-state system remains an open
challenge. In this work, we report new types of morphological one-dimensional
(1D) organic metal halide hybrid micro/nanotubes and micro/nanorods,
which exhibit excitation-dependent optical waveguide properties from
visible to near-infrared (NIR) regions with low-loss coefficient and
high emissive efficiency during the propagation process. Strong intermolecular
interactions within the hybrid systems could effectively reduce the
nonradiative transition and improve quantum efficiency. Photophysical
studies and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the color-tunable
emission can be attributed to the coexistence of locally excited states
and charge-transfer states. Utilizing excitation-dependent optical
waveguide emission ranging from visible to NIR regions, we fabricate
an optical wavelength converter to transfer short-wavelength into
long-wavelength emission with multichannels. Furthermore, an optical
logic gate system was designed based on the tunable emission properties
of the 1D metal halide micro/nanotubes. Therefore, this work provides
not only a facile process to synthesize 1D organic metal halide hybrids
with excitation-dependent optical waveguide properties but also a
new way to advance photofunctional logic computation at the micro/nanoscale.