Directed self-assembly of organic crystals into chip-like heterostructures for signal processing

Organic single crystals show broad application prospects in the field of optical confinement and waveguides due to their low optical transmission loss and tunable optical properties. Individual one- or two-dimensional (1D or 2D) optical waveguide crystals have the limitations of a single function in organic photonics. In this work, a chip-like organic heterostructure was fabricated using an elaborately designed, sequential growth method. By regulating the concentration of each organic component, the processes of solution self-assembly, etching, and epitaxial self-assembly are successively performed to complete the directional growth of organic micro/nanostructures. Notably, the as-prepared chip-like organic heterostructure is composed of 1D/2D optical waveguide crystals, which can realize multidimensional photon transportation and multi-terminal directional optical signal output. Furthermore, the unique 2D optical waveguide properties of the chip-like heterostructures offer opportunities for constructing the encoding form of the output optical signal at the micro/nanoscale.