Tunable Upconverted Circularly Polarized Luminescence in Cellulose Nanocrystal Based Chiral Photonic Films

Integrating chromophores into chiral photonic crystals to fabricate materials that exhibit circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) is promising as this method allows efficient manipulation of the spontaneous emission within photonic bandgaps (PBGs). However, tuning the wavelength of CPL and the dissymmetry factor ( g_lum) in a convenient and accurate manner remains a significant challenge. Here, right-handed, tunable upconverted CPL (UC-CPL) emission was achieved by integrating multiple emissive, upconverting nanoparticles into cellulose nanocrystal based chiral photonic films that had tunable PBGs. Glycerol was used to tune the PBGs of the chiral photonic films, which yielded tunable UC-CPL emission at 450 and 620 nm with a tailored g_lum. Moreover, humidity responsive UC-CPL at blue wavelength was obtained from glycerol-composite photonic film, with a g_lum that ranged from -0.156 to -0.033. It was possible because the PBG and chirality of photonic composite was responded to the relative humidity. This work gives valuable insight into tunable and stimuli-responsive CPL photonic systems.