Due to their specially photophysical properties, circularly polarized luminescence (CPL) materials are of particular interest. They have a wide range of potential applications in biological science, 3D display, information storage, spintronics, optoelectronic devices, and so forth. The ones with excellent CPL character range from small chiral molecules to supermolecules, and from chiral rare earth complexes to nano-superstructures. Recently, this field began fast development due to the progress of new materials and technology in chiral science and nanoscience.

This review presents a whole picture of this field, including theory and experiments. The formulas suitable to ordinary chiral materials and chiral optical crystals are presented. The reviewed CPL-active materials are categorized into small organic molecules, lanthanide complexes, inorganic nanomaterials, self-assembled helical nanomaterials, and supermolecular gels. The corresponding merits and drawbacks are discussed systematically. The influence factors on the dissymmetry factor and luminescence efficiency are presented in detail. Last, we discuss the opportunities and challenges of concurrently enhancing the dissymmetry factor and luminescent efficiency.