Organic Photostimulated Luminescence

Photostimulated luminescence, which allows energy or data to be stored and released using electromagnetic waves as both the input and output, has attracted considerable interest in the fields of biomedical and informatics technologies, but this phenomenon is mostly limited to solid inorganic materials. Here, we report photostimulated luminescence from purely organic blend films composed of electron donor, acceptor, and trap/emitter molecules. In the films, charges are accumulated as radical ions by ultraviolet light irradiation and then extracted by near infrared light irradiation to produce visible light. Films are capable of multiple cycles (>10 times) of organic photostimulated luminescence, which was still observable from films left in the dark at room temperature for one week after excitation, and emission color could be varied by changing the trap/emitter molecules. These findings will broadly impact existing applications and provide new prospects for innovative flexible devices.