Highly Efficient Inherent Linearly Polarized Electroluminescence from Small‐Molecule Organic Single Crystals

Small-molecule organic single crystals (SCs) with an inherent in-plane anisotropic nature enable direct linearly polarized light emission without the need for spatially separated polarizer and complex optical structures. However, the device performance is severely restricted by the starvation of appropriate SC emitters and the difficulty in the construction of efficient SC electroluminescence (EL) devices, leading to a low external quantum efficiency (EQE) of usually smaller than 1.5%. Here, we demonstrate highly efficient inherent linearly polarized light-emitting diodes (LP-LEDs) by exploiting 2,6-diphenylanthracene (DPA) SCs as intrinsically polarized emitters. The LP-LEDs exhibit a 2.5-fold enhanced maximum EQE of 3.38%, which approaches the theoretical limit for the DPA SC-based EL device and is the highest among organic SC-based light-emitting diodes reported thus far. More importantly, a high degree of polarization (DOP) up to 0.74 is achieved for the intrinsically polarized EL emission of the DPA SC-based LP-LEDs. By leveraging the highly efficient LP-LED, we demonstrate for the first time an inter-chip polarized optical communication system consisting of organic SCs. This work creates a solid foundation for the exploitation of a vast new library of small-molecule organic SCs for LP-LEDs and carries broad implications for polarized optics and relevant optoelectronic devices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.