Boosting Wide‐Range Tunable Long‐Afterglow in 1D Metal–Organic Halide Micro/Nanocrystals for Space/Time‐Resolved Information Photonics

Abstract Molecular afterglow materials with ultralong‐lived excited states have attracted considerable interest owing to their promise for light‐emitting devices, optical imaging, and anti‐counterfeiting applications. However, the realization of ultralong afterglow emission in low‐dimensional micro/nanostructures has remained an open challenge, limiting progress toward new‐generation photonic applications. In this work, new types of mono/binuclear metal–organic halide micro/nanocrystals with tunable afterglow properties, made possibly by the rational control over both ultralong‐lived room‐temperature phosphorescence and thermally activated delayed fluorescence, are developed. Interestingly, the mono/binuclear coordination complexes present excitation‐dependent luminescence across a wide range (wavelength > 150 nm) with broad emission color differences from blue to yellow owing to the multiple long‐lived excited states. The 1D binuclear metal–organic microrods further exhibit excitation‐dependent optical waveguide and space/time dual‐resolved afterglow emission properties, endowing them with great potential in wavelength‐division multiplexing information photonics and logic gates. Therefore, this work not only communicates the first example of wide‐range tunable ultralong afterglow of low‐dimensional metal–organic micro/nanocrystals under ambient conditions but also provides a new route to achieve optical communications and photonic logic compilation at the micro/nanoscale.