Circularly polarized light (CPL) is widely used for various applications in sensing and imaging^1,2,3. An ongoing challenge is to realize high-quality CPL detection using chiral organic semiconductors, especially in the near-infrared (NIR) region⁴. Chiral molecules tend to rely on twisted stereogenic moieties; however, conventional approaches to reduce the bandgap of organic semiconductors are based on the use of co-planar backbones that commonly lead to molecular symmetries preventing chirality. Here we report a widely applicable strategy to directly induce chiroptical activity in planar non-fullerene acceptors^5,6,7, which are widely used for high-performance organic photovoltaics and provide a wealth of opportunities to fill the spectral gap of CPL detection in the NIR regime. We demonstrate proof-of-concept circularly polarized organic photodiodes using chiroptically active non-fullerene acceptor blends, which exhibit strong circular dichroism and hence great sensitivity to CPL in the NIR region. Importantly, this strategy is found to be effective in a wide series of state-of-the-art non-fullerene acceptor families including ITIC⁵, o-IDTBR⁶ and Y6 analogues⁷, which substantially broadens the range of materials applicable to NIR CPL detection.

圆偏振光 (CPL) 广泛用于传感和成像^1,2,3的各种应用。一个持续的挑战是使用手性有机半导体实现高质量的 CPL 检测，尤其是在近红外 (NIR) 区域⁴。手性分子倾向于依赖扭曲的手性部分；然而，减少有机半导体带隙的传统方法是基于使用共面主链，这通常会导致分子对称性从而阻碍手性。在这里，我们报告了一种广泛适用的策略，可直接在平面非富勒烯受体中诱导手性光活性^5,6,7，它们广泛用于高性能有机光伏，并提供了大量机会来填补近红外区域 CPL 检测的光谱空白。我们展示了使用手性活性非富勒烯受体混合物的概念验证圆偏振有机光电二极管，它表现出强烈的圆二色性，因此对 NIR 区域的 CPL 非常敏感。重要的是，该策略被发现在一系列最先进的非富勒烯受体家族中有效，包括 ITIC ⁵、o -IDTBR ⁶和 Y6 类似物⁷，这大大拓宽了适用于 NIR CPL 的材料范围检测。