Near-Infrared Solid-State Lasers Based on Small Organic Molecules

Organic solid-state lasers (OSSLs) have undergone great progresses in the past two decades and will boost the society development since the realization of electrically pumped OSSLs in 2019. Significantly, the near-infrared (NIR) OSSLs are of great value owing to their applications in laser communication, spectroscopy, and medical diagnosis. Laser action at visible region has been facilely achieved due to the various kinds of organic molecular skeleton. However, due to the energy band law, the progress of NIR OSSLs is hampered by the dominated nonradiative decay channel of the low-bandgap organic semiconductor materials. Herein, we review the recent advances of NIR OSSLs in terms of materials, device types, as well as some enlightening examples in applications. In the end, the perspectives for the future development are given, hopefully to provide useful guidance for the further research on NIR OSSLs.