A research group led by Profs Hajime Nakanotani and Chihaya Adachi (Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics Research (OPERA)/ I2CNER) has demonstrated the active control of dipole direction—that is, vector direction and magnitude—in organic glassy films by physical vapour deposition. An organic glassy film with metastable permanent dipole moment orientation can be obtained by utilizing the small surface free energy of a trifluoromethyl unit and intramolecular permanent dipole moment induced by functional groups. The proposed molecular design rule could pave a way toward the formation of spontaneously polarized organic glassy films, leading to improvement in the performance of organic molecular devices.
Tanaka M., Auffray M., Nakanotani H., Adachi C., Spontaneous formation of metastable orientation with well-organized permanent dipole moment in organic glassy films, Nat. Mater. (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01265-7
