SMILES is an acronym for Small Molecule Ionic isolation LatticES, a materials platform that makes ultra-bright fluorescent solids. SMILES first appeared in 2020 as the culmination of a collaboration between the research groups of Professors Amar Flood (Indiana University) and Bo Laursen (University of Copenhagen) and is the backbone technology for Halophore.

If you are unfamiliar with the technology you can see a non-technical explainer video here. In short, SMILES are self-assembled materials in which fluorescent dyes are embedded in an optically inert lattice. What results are solids with a high density of fluorescent molecules, making them ultra-bright, ultra-stable, and much easier to process. It is a plug-and-play technology, compatible with the vast majority of fluorescent dyes currently known, allowing us to reliably transfer the solution-phase properties of dyes into the solid state for the first time.

Potential Applications: Solid-state lasers, optical coatings, fluorescent biolabels, calibration standards.