Highly Elastic Organic Crystals for Flexible Optical Waveguides

The study of elastic organic single crystals (EOSCs) has emerged as a cutting‐edge research of crystal engineering. Although a few EOSCs have been reported recently, those suitable for optical/optoelectronic applications have not been realized. Here, we report an elastic crystal of a Schiff base, ( E )‐1‐(4‐(dimethylamino)phenyl)iminomethyl‐2‐hydroxyl‐naphthalene. The crystal is highly bendable under external stress and able to regain immediately its original straight shape when the stress is released. It displays bright orange–red emission with a high fluorescence quantum yield of 0.43. Intriguingly, it can serve as a low‐loss optical waveguide even at the highly bent state. Our result highlights the feature and utility of “elasticity” of organic crystals.