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May

Picture of the Month - May 2026

Amorphous Diamondoid Materials with Extreme Non-Linear Optical Properties

While LEDs dominate today’s lighting market, the search for more efficient, directed white-light sources has begun shifting toward organic molecular materials. Within the DFG-funded FOR 2824 research unit, we are pioneering the use of diamondoid-based organic compounds as sustainable, lightweight materials that convert infrared laser light into directed white-light.

By systematically incorporating functionalized diamondoids such as substituted fluoroaryladamantanes and diamantanes, as well as polymers, including linear diamondoid-based polyamides and polyesters, we can precisely tune their geometric and electronic structures. With the help of DFT studies, we identified that this unique white-light emission (WLE) originates from short-range structural disorder within the material.

These findings pave the way for a new generation of stable, cost-effective photonic materials for large-scale applications. The contributors to this project include Prof. Dr. Peter R. Schreiner (PI), Dr. Saravanan Gowrisankar, and Marius Lang. A selection of our recent findings is detailed in the publications listed here.

This picture was submitted by Marius Lang (group of Prof. Dr. Peter R. Schreiner).

Further insights into the research activities of the ZfM groups can be found in the Gallery.