Emission from electronically excited species forms the basis for an important class of light sources-lasers. So far, commercially available solution-processed blue-emitting laser materials are based on organic compounds or semiconductor nanocrystals that have significant limitations: either low solubility, low chemical- and/or photo-stability and/or uncompetitive prices. Here we report a novel and competitive alternative to these existing laser materials that is based on boron hydrides, inorganic cluster compounds with a rich and diverse chemistry. We demonstrate that solutions of the borane anti-B18H22 show, under pulsed excitation, blue laser emission at 406 nm with an efficiency (ratio of output/input energies) of 9.5%, and a photostability superior to many of the commercially available state-of-the-art blue laser dyes. This demonstration opens the doors for the development of a whole new class of laser materials based on a previously untapped resource for laser technology-the boranes.

] Department of Syntheses Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the AS CR v v i 250 68 Husinec Řež Czech Republic [2] Faculty of Science J E Purkinje University Ceske Mladeze 8 40096 Ústi nad Labem Czech Republic

Department of Low Dimensional Systems Surfaces and Condensed Matter Instituto de Química Física 'Rocasolano' Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas Serrano 119 ES 28006 Madrid Spain

Department of Syntheses Institute of Inorganic Chemistry of the AS CR v v i 250 68 Husinec Řež Czech Republic

References provided by Crossref.org

Ionisation of atoms determined by kappa refinement against 3D electron diffraction data

Macropolyhedral syn-B18H22, the "Forgotten" Isomer

A Window into the Workings of anti-B18H22 Luminescence-Blue-Fluorescent Isomeric Pair 3,3'-Cl2-B18H20 and 3,4'-Cl2-B18H20 (and Others)

Incorporation of the New anti-Octadecaborane Laser Dyes into Thin Polymer Films: A Temperature-Dependent Photoluminescence and Infrared Spectroscopy Study

The Photostability of Novel Boron Hydride Blue Emitters in Solution and Polystyrene Matrix