Circular dichroism and electroluminescence of poly(diacetylene) film with chirality.

By applying only circularly polarized light (CPL) irradiation to evaporated achiral diacetylene (DA) monomer film during its photopolymerization process, we prepared poly(diacetylene) (PDA) films that show circular dichroism (CD). The left- or right-handed chirality was induced in the polymerized PDA films by the left- and right-CPL irradiation. We studied physical properties of the prepared PDA films, including their electrical and optical properties. The induced chirality in PDA films was not destroyed after annealing at 353 K for 10 min, whilst their blue-phase was changed into a red one. The intensity of the CD signal was dependent on the substrate temperature employed for the monomer deposition. Electroluminescence was found to be enhanced with the polymerized PDA films installed as an active layer of organic field-effect transistors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]