Congrats to ChangKi Moon, Matthias König, Ranjini Sircar and Julian Butscher on their latest paper in Light: Science & Applications (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41377-025-02143-y). In this collaboration with Dr Stefan Pulver and Prof. Klaus Meerholz, we demonstrate for the first time the use of electrochemiluminescence (ECL) as a light source for optogenetic experiments.
ECL refers to an electrochemical process of light-generation in fluid layers. To maximize optical output, we introduced an ECL mechanism based on exciplex formation followed by energy-transfer and applied a biphasic voltage-pulse driving method. The semi-transparent nature of the ECL device enabled photostimulation of Drosophila larval and simultaneous microscopy to observe larval behavior in response to light stimulation. This highlights the potential of ECL devices as new optical tools for biomedical and neurophotonics research.