Near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes and semiconductor lasers could benefit a variety of applications including night-vision displays, sensors and information-secured displays. Organic dyes can generate electroluminescence efficiently at visible wavelengths, but organic light-emitting diodes are still underperforming in the near-infrared region. Here, we report thermally activated delayed fluorescent organic light-emitting diodes that operate at near-infrared wavelengths with a maximum external quantum efficiency of nearly 10% using a boron difluoride curcuminoid derivative. As well as an effective upconversion from triplet to singlet excited states due to the non-adiabatic coupling effect, this donor–acceptor–donor compound also exhibits efficient amplified spontaneous emission. By controlling the polarity of the active medium, the maximum emission wavelength of the electroluminescence spectrum can be tuned from 700 to 780 nm. This study represents an important advance in near-infrared organic light-emitting diodes and the design of alternative molecular architectures for photonic applications based on thermally activated delayed fluorescence.

近红外有机发光二极管和半导体激光器可以使包括夜视显示器，传感器和信息安全显示器在内的各种应用受益。有机染料可以在可见波长处有效地产生电致发光，但是有机发光二极管在近红外区域仍然表现不佳。在这里，我们报告了使用二氟化硼姜黄素衍生物在近红外波长下以近10％的最大外部量子效率工作的热激活延迟荧光有机发光二极管。由于非绝热耦合效应，从三重激发态到单重激发态也有有效的上转换，这种供体-受体-供体化合物也表现出有效的放大自发发射。通过控制活性介质的极性，电致发光光谱的最大发射波长可以从700调整到780 nm。这项研究代表了近红外有机发光二极管的重要进展，以及基于热激活延迟荧光的光子应用替代分子体系结构的设计。