Rational Molecular Design for Balanced Locally Excited and Charge- Transfer Nature for Two-Photon Absorption...

The pursuit of highly efficient thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) emitters with two-photon absorption (2PA) character is hampered by the concurrent achievement of a small singlet-triplet energy gap (ΔE_ST) and high photoluminescence quantum yield (Φ_PL). Here, by introducing a terephthalonitrile unit into a sterically crowded donor-π-donor structure, inducing a hybrid electronic excitation character, we designed unique TADF emitters possessing 2PA ability. This rational molecular design was achieved through a main π-conjugated donor-acceptor-donor backbone in line with locally excited feature renders a large oscillator strength and transition dipole moment, maintaining a high 2PA cross-section value. The ancillary N-donor-acceptor-donor with charge transfer character highly balances the TADF phenomenon by minimizing ΔE_ST. A near-unity Φ_PL value with a large radiative decay rate over an order of magnitude higher than the intersystem crossing rate and a high horizontal orientation ratio of 0.95 were simultaneously attained for TPCz2NP. The organic light-emitting diodes fabricated with this material exhibit a high maximum external quantum efficiency of 25.4 % with an elevated 2PA cross-section (σ₂) value up to 143 GM at 850 nm. These findings offer a venue for designing high-performance TADF emitters with exceptional performance inclusive of 2PA properties, expanding for future functional material design.