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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.
Liu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.