High-performance electro-optic materials featuring enhanced thermal stability through dual-donor structural...

Organic electro-optic (EO) materials combining high EO efficiency with robust thermal stability are essential for next-generation optoelectronic transceivers. However, limited chromophore loading and poor thermal stability during poling processing and practical application have restricted their EO performance. Here, a dual-donor crosslinking strategy is proposed through the synthesis of highly efficient binary crosslinkable dual-donor chromophores (YZ1-YZ6) based on anthracene-acrylate, anthracene-maleimide and maleimide-furan Diels-Alder reactions, as well as azide-alkyne Huisgen cycloaddition. Following electric-field poling, polymeric crosslinked networks are formed at designated temperatures, effectively locking molecular orientation and markedly enhancing thermal stability. The resulting crosslinked films exhibit large EO coefficients of 257-301 pm/V and elevated glass transition temperatures (T _g) of 107-187°C, together with high chromophore densities of 3.73-4.26 × 10²⁰ molecules cm^-3. Long-term thermal aging at 85°C demonstrates excellent stability, with 2:1 YZ1:YZ2 and 2:1 YZ5:YZ6 retaining 99.68% and 95.01% of their initial r₃₃ values after 500 h, respectively. This work provides an effective molecular-engineering strategy for the systematic development of high-performance organic EO materials.