Luminescence colour modulation in benzotriazole-derived waveguides

A series of new Donor-Acceptor-Donor (D-A-D) benzotriazole derivatives have been synthesized and processed into crystals with the aim to establish a relationship between their chemical structure and waveguided luminescent properties. The outcomes show that all crystals display luminescence and active optical waveguiding with optical loss coefficients in the 10−2 dB/μm range, with the capability to tune their luminescence across a wide spectral range of 500–700 nm upon substitution at the benzotriazole moiety. There is also an evident relationship between the HOMO-LUMO energy gaps and the color emission of the corresponding waveguides. These results support the possibility of modulating the emission color of organic waveguides by appropriate chemical functionalization.