Molecular N‐Type Doping Unlocks Low‐Threshold Nanosecond Lasing in a Microcavity‐Integrated OLED Toward Electrically Pumped Organic Lasers

Organic semiconductors are attractive for the development of flexible, wavelength-tunable lasers. However, most reported organic micro/nanolasers rely on femtosecond-pulsed optical pumping, which is impractical for real-world applications. This limitation has urged the pursuit of electrically pumped organic lasers; yet their realization remains a long-standing challenge primarily due to a fundamental materials dilemma, in which high-gain organic semiconductors often suffer from poor, unbalanced charge transport. Here, we demonstrate that this intrinsic trade-off can be effectively alleviated through a molecular doping strategy. Employing a high-gain spirofluorene derivative as the emissive layer, we introduce an n-type doped layer to construct an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), achieving more balanced charge transport while preserving outstanding optical gain. Consequently, singlet-polaron annihilation is significantly suppressed, as evidenced by reduced efficiency roll-off and electrically pumped transient absorption measurements. When integrated with a distributed feedback (DFB) resonator, the resulting device exhibits ultra-narrow (∼2 nm) electroluminescence under pulsed current injections and delivers low-threshold nanosecond lasing under an optical-electrical co-pumping configuration, thereby demonstrating a practical architecture for implementing organic laser diodes. Our work provides a general strategy to overcome the intrinsic paradox where high-gain organic semiconductors struggle to maintain balanced charge transport, illuminating a pathway toward light amplification under electrical excitation.

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Publication Details

Journal
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Published
2026-06-09
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/anie.5388345
Primary Topic
Strong Light-Matter Interactions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Molecular N‐Type Doping Unlocks Low‐Threshold Nanosecond Lasing in a Microcavity‐Integrated OLED Toward Electrically Pumped Organic Lasers

Z Xu, Wei Cheng, Y ZHAO, Chenmiao Zhao et al.
Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Strong Light-Matter Interactions
article

Molecular N‐Type Doping Unlocks Low‐Threshold Nanosecond Lasing in a Microcavity‐Integrated OLED Toward Electrically Pumped Organic Lasers

Z Xu, Wei Cheng, Y ZHAO, Chenmiao Zhao, Yuhao Xie, Boning Wu, Yongli Yan, J Yao, Wenming Tian, Kang Wang, Bo Peng, Leshen Lin
article en

Abstract

Organic semiconductors are attractive for the development of flexible, wavelength-tunable lasers. However, most reported organic micro/nanolasers rely on femtosecond-pulsed optical pumping, which is impractical for real-world applications. This limitation has urged the pursuit of electrically pumped organic lasers; yet their realization remains a long-standing challenge primarily due to a fundamental materials dilemma, in which high-gain organic semiconductors often suffer from poor, unbalanced charge transport. Here, we demonstrate that this intrinsic trade-off can be effectively alleviated through a molecular doping strategy. Employing a high-gain spirofluorene derivative as the emissive layer, we introduce an n-type doped layer to construct an organic light-emitting diode (OLED), achieving more balanced charge transport while preserving outstanding optical gain. Consequently, singlet-polaron annihilation is significantly suppressed, as evidenced by reduced efficiency roll-off and electrically pumped transient absorption measurements. When integrated with a distributed feedback (DFB) resonator, the resulting device exhibits ultra-narrow (∼2 nm) electroluminescence under pulsed current injections and delivers low-threshold nanosecond lasing under an optical-electrical co-pumping configuration, thereby demonstrating a practical architecture for implementing organic laser diodes. Our work provides a general strategy to overcome the intrinsic paradox where high-gain organic semiconductors struggle to maintain balanced charge transport, illuminating a pathway toward light amplification under electrical excitation.

Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (CN), Institute of Chemistry (CN), Institute of Physics (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Natural Science Foundation of Beijing Municipality, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences
Openalex Percentile: Top 6%
Strong Light-Matter Interactions
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