Researchers from the Imperial College in London are researching the usage of Helicenes as emitter materials in OLED panels. Helicene based PLED emit circularly polarized light (they call these CP-OLEDs) and these may be useful for 3D OLEDs and other optical and photonics applications.
Helicenes are thermally-stable polycyclic aromatics with helically-shaped molecules. These molecules has unique structural, spectral, and optical features. The researchers found that when these molecules are used as emitter materials in OLED panels, they emit a light that is circularly polarized (not 100% though).
The researchers say that there are several applications for these so-called CP-OLEDs. It may be used as the backlight of an LCD (which needs polarized light) - but I don't think this is a likely scenario because it will be expensive for an LCD, and if you already know how to produce the OLED itself, it's better to use it for a real OLED displays. Other applications include 3D displays (which rely on light polarization for the stereoscopic effect), CP-light detectors and emitters and optical communication devices.
