Metal–Organic Flexible Glasses Deliver Time‐Chirality‐Color Multi‐Dimensional Photonic Switches

Abstract

ABSTRACT Combining color tunability with high processability in active optical waveguides remains a major challenge, as conventional crystalline materials are fundamentally limited by brittleness and short excited‐state lifetimes. Here, we introduce a new class of metal‐organic hybrid (MOH) photonic glasses assembled through an evaporation‐induced self‐assembly strategy, simultaneously achieving time‐, space‐, and color‐resolved photonic capabilities that encompass circularly polarized room‐temperature phosphorescence (CPR) and reversible photochromism. The glasses exhibit bright green CPR whose emission color is continuously and dynamically tunable across a broad spectral range through photochromic switching. Mechanistic investigations combining spectroscopic characterization with theoretical analysis attribute the strong CPR to efficient suppression of non‐radiative transitions via multiple intermolecular interactions, while photochromism originates from photoinduced radical generation. Their outstanding processability further enables fabrication of large‐scale, flexible core‐cladding optical fibers that serve concurrently as photonic memory systems and integrated photonic circuits. This work establishes a general design principle for processable photonic glasses that unifies molecular‐level design with macroscopic fiber engineering, charting a well‐defined path toward next‐generation flexible photonic materials and technologies.