Flexible Optical Waveguides in Heterocyclic Schiff Base Self-Assembled Hydrogen-Bonded Solvates

Abstract

Flexible fluorescent crystalline materials exhibit both mechanical and optical properties and have received great attention due to their potential applications in flexible optical devices. Simultaneously adjusting the mechanical and optical properties of crystalline materials remains interesting and challenging. In the present work, a guest molecule was introduced via hydrogen-bonded solvation, which achieved excellent mechanical elasticity and higher fluorescence emission than that of the host heterocyclic Schiff base molecule crystal itself. The crystal structure–property relationship and the molecular mechanism of the elasticity were then investigated in detail. It revealed that solvent molecules play a key role in changing both the stacking of fluorescent molecules and the interaction energy framework. In addition, the flexible fluorescent solvate exhibits a good waveguide property. A bent crystal was found to have a larger optical loss coefficient than a straight crystal. Furthermore, the size effect on the optical loss coefficient of the waveguide was discussed in which the optical loss coefficient decreases as the sizes increase. Such a size effect is usually neglected in waveguide material research and should be complemented in the performance evaluation of optical waveguides.