Novel soluble N-phenyl-carbazole-containing PPVs for light-emitting devices: Synthesis, electrochemical, optical, and electroluminescent properties

Novel PPV derivatives (PCA8-PV and PCA8-MEHPV) containing N-phenyl-carbazole units on the back-bone were successfully synthesized by the Wittig polycondensation of 3,6-bisformyl-N-(4-octyloxy-phenyl)carbazole with the corresponding tributyl phosphonium salts in good yields. The newly formed and dominant trans vinylene double bonds were confirmed by FT-IR and NMR spectroscopy. The polymers (with (M) over bar (w) of 6289 for PCA8-PV and 7387 for PCA8-MEHPV) were soluble in common organic solvents and displayed high thermal stability (T(g)s are 110.7 degreesC for PCA8-PV and 92.2 degreesC for PCA8-MEHPV, respectively) because of the incorporation of the N-phenyl-carbazole units. Cyclic voltammetry investigations (onsets: 0.8 V for PCA8-PV and 0.7 V for PCA8-MEHPV) suggested that the polymers possess enhanced hole injection/transport properties, which can be also attributed to the N-phenyl-carbazole units on the backbone. Both the single-layer and the double-layer light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that used the polymers as the active layer emitted a greenish-blue or bluish-green light (the maximum emissions located 494 nm for PCA8-PV and 507 nm for PCA8-MEHPV, respectively).

Preparation and characterization of post-derivatives from functional polystyrene (ATRP) with p-nitroaniline-azomethine phenol and their thermal and optical study

The functional polystyrene, (Cl-PS)(2)-CHCOOCH2CH2OH ( designated as XPSt and coded P2) was prepared by ATRP at 130(0)C using CuCl and bipyridine as catalysts, 2,2-dichloro acetate-ethylene glycol (DCAG) as multifunctional initiator and THF as solvent. 4-Nitoroaniline azomethine-4' phenol (P1) as chromophores were covalently linked to the functional end groups of the polymer by using simple displacement reaction. The functional polystyrenes, namely XPSt (P2) and (PS)(2)-CHCOOCH2CH2OH, designated as X-PSt and coded P3 and their post-derivatives, namely, DXPSt (P4) and DX-PSt (P5) respectively were characterized by IR, NMR and UV spectroscopies, gel permeation chromatography (GPC) and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), polarising optical microscopy (POM) and XRD studies. DSC showed that incorporation of chromophores in the side chains of polymers towards the polystyrene moiety increases the rigidity of the polymer and subsequently, its glass transition temperature; however the incorporation of side chain towards the alcoholic functional group decreases the glass transition temperature. The post derivatives do not play any significant role to increase the thermal stability ( TGA).

Effect of end substitution on optical properties and molecular orientation of distyrylbenzene derivatives in thin film

Three distyrylbenzene (DSB) derivatives were vacuum-evaporated on a (001) surface of KBr. DSB derivative molecules formed nuclei by interaction between the electron donative methoxyl group and Br- ion of the substrate crystal and oriented their longitudinal axis obliquely to the substrate surface. The peak shift between the emission peaks of solution and film decreased depending on the number of substituent. This phenomenon was originated to reduction of molecular interaction between neighboring molecules by steric hindrance of end substituents. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Spontaneous emission properties of organic film in plane optical microcavity

The spontaneous emission properties of a single layer organic film in plane optical microcavities were studied. Optical microcavity was formed by a Tris(8-quinolinolato) aluminium (Alq) film sandwiched between a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) and a Ag metallic reflector. Two kinds of microcavities were devised by using a different DBR structure. Compared with a Alq film, significantly spectral narrowing and intensity enhancement was observed in the two microcavities, which is attributed to the microcavity effect. The spectra characteristics of the two microcavities showed that the structure of DBR has much influence on the emission properties of a microcavity. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.

Structural and optical properties of distyrylbenzene derivative thin films

In order to understand the relationship between the molecular orientation and optical properties of oligophenylenevinylene film, oriented thin films of 1,4-di(p-methoxystyryl)benzene (DSB-1) and 1,4-di(p-methoxystyryl)-2,5-dimethoxybenzene (DSB-2) were fabricated on a potassium bromide (KBr) (001) surface by the vacuum-evaporation method. The structures and optical properties of DSB films have been investigated by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and polarized photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, respectively. DSB-1 molecules orient obliquely and/or parallel to the substrate surface depending on the substrate temperature. On the other hand, DSB-2 molecules tend to grow epitaxially with the molecular plane parallel to the substrate surface. The anisotropic molecular orientations represent the polarized PL. The epitaxial growth and molecular orientations observed by TEM and AFM at the local and microscopic scale are confirmed by polarized PL measurement on a macroscopic scale. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)01523-6].

THE USE OF LIGHT-MICROSCOPY FOR INVESTIGATIONS OF EPITAXIAL-GROWTH OF POLYMERS ON POLYMERIC SUBSTRATES

In order to study the oriented (epitaxial) crystallization of thermoplastic polymers on oriented polymer substrates, generally the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is used. With this instrument, the crystallized material can easily be resolved and orientation relationships can be monitored by electron diffraction. Disadvantages are the time consuming sample preparations and difficulties in the in-situ observations of the crystallization events, because of the radiation sensitivity of the polymer crystals. It is demonstrated that these disadvantages of the TEM can be eleminated by the use of different methods of light optical contrasts under specific preparation conditions of the samples and that the optical microscopy being a supplementary method to the TEM for investigations of epitaxial crystallization.

Dynamic Model and Control of an Artificial Muscle Based on Contractile Polymers

A dynamic model and control system of an artificial muscle is presented. The artificial muscle is based on a contractile polymer gel which undergoes abrupt volume changes in response to variations in external conditions. The device uses an acid-base reaction to directly convert chemical to mechanical energy. A nonlinear sliding mode control system is proposed to track desired joint trajectories of a single link controlled by two antagonist muscles. Both the model and controller were implemented and produced acceptable tracking performance at 2Hz.

All-optical modulation converter for on-off keying to duobinary and alternate-mark inversion at 42.6 Gbps

Advanced modulation formats have become increasingly important as telecoms engineers strive for improved tolerance to both linear and nonlinear fibre-based transmission impairments. Two important modulation schemes are Duobinary (DB) and Alternate-mark inversion (AMI) [1] where transmission enhancement results from auxiliary phase modulation. As advanced modulation formats displace Return-to-zero On-Off Keying (RZ-OOK), inter-modulation converters will become increasingly important. If the modulation conversion can be performed at high bitrates with a small number of operations per bit, then all-optical techniques may offer lower energy consumption compared to optical-electronic-optical approaches. In this paper we experimentally demonstrate an all-optical system incorporating a pair of hybrid-integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) gates which translate RZ-OOK to RZ-DB or RZ-AMI at 42.6 Gbps. This scheme includes a wavelength conversion to arbitrary output wavelength and has potential for high-level photonic integration, scalability to higher bitrates, and should exhibit regenerative properties [2].

Use of semiconductor optical amplifiers in signal processing applications

We describe a 42.6 Gbit/s all-optical pattern recognition system which uses semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). A circuit with three SOA-based logic gates is used to identify the presence of specific port numbers in an optical packet header.

High speed optical communication systems: From modulation formats to radically new fibres

High volumes of data traffic along with bandwidth hungry applications, such as cloud computing and video on demand, is driving the core optical communication links closer and closer to their maximum capacity. The research community has clearly identifying the coming approach of the nonlinear Shannon limit for standard single mode fibre [1,2]. It is in this context that the work on modulation formats, contained in Chapter 3 of this thesis, was undertaken. The work investigates the proposed energy-efficient four-dimensional modulation formats. The work begins by studying a new visualisation technique for four dimensional modulation formats, akin to constellation diagrams. The work then carries out one of the first implementations of one such modulation format, polarisation-switched quadrature phase-shift keying (PS-QPSK). This thesis also studies two potential next-generation fibres, few-mode and hollow-core photonic band-gap fibre. Chapter 4 studies ways to experimentally quantify the nonlinearities in few-mode fibre and assess the potential benefits and limitations of such fibres. It carries out detailed experiments to measure the effects of stimulated Brillouin scattering, self-phase modulation and four-wave mixing and compares the results to numerical models, along with capacity limit calculations. Chapter 5 investigates hollow-core photonic band-gap fibre, where such fibres are predicted to have a low-loss minima at a wavelength of 2μm. To benefit from this potential low loss window requires the development of telecoms grade subsystems and components. The chapter will outline some of the development and characterisation of these components. The world's first wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) subsystem directly implemented at 2μm is presented along with WDM transmission over hollow-core photonic band-gap fibre at 2μm. References: [1]P. P. Mitra, J. B. Stark, Nature, 411, 1027-1030, 2001 [2] A. D. Ellis et al., JLT, 28, 423-433, 2010.

FSBS resonances observed in a standard highly nonlinear fiber.

Forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (FSBS) is observed in a standard 2-km-long highly nonlinear fiber. The frequency of FSBS arising from multiple radially guided acoustic resonances is observed up to gigahertz frequencies. The tight confinement of the light and acoustic field enhances the interaction and results in a large gain coefficient of 34.7 W(-1) at a frequency of 933.8 MHz. We also find that the profile on the anti-Stokes side of the pump beam have lineshapes that are asymmetric, which we show is due to the interference between FSBS and the optical Kerr effect. The measured FSBS resonance linewidths are found to increase linearly with the acoustic frequency. Based on this scaling, we conclude that dominant contribution to the linewidth is from surface damping due to the fiber jacket and structural nonuniformities along the fiber.

Boundary conditions in the simplest model of linear and second harmonic magneto-optical effects

This paper is concerned with linear and nonlinear magneto- optical effects in multilayered magnetic systems when treated by the simplest phenomenological model that allows their response to be represented in terms of electric polarization, The problem is addressed by formulating a set of boundary conditions at infinitely thin interfaces, taking into account the existence of surface polarizations. Essential details are given that describe how the formalism of distributions (generalized functions) allows these conditions to be derived directly from the differential form of Maxwell's equations. Using the same formalism we show the origin of alternative boundary conditions that exist in the literature. The boundary value problem for the wave equation is formulated, with an emphasis on the analysis of second harmonic magneto-optical effects in ferromagnetically ordered multilayers. An associated problem of conventions in setting up relationships between the nonlinear surface polarization and the fundamental electric field at the interfaces separating anisotropic layers through surface susceptibility tensors is discussed. A problem of self- consistency of the model is highlighted, relating to the existence of resealing procedures connecting the different conventions. The linear approximation with respect to magnetization is pursued, allowing rotational anisotropy of magneto-optical effects to be easily analyzed owing to the invariance of the corresponding polar and axial tensors under ordinary point groups. Required representations of the tensors are given for the groups infinitym, 4mm, mm2, and 3m, With regard to centrosymmetric multilayers, nonlinear volume polarization is also considered. A concise expression is given for its magnetic part, governed by an axial fifth-rank susceptibility tensor being invariant under the Curie group infinityinfinitym.

Signal-to-Noise Ratio Analysis for Nonlinear N-ary Phase Filters

The problem of recognising targets in non-overlapping clutter using nonlinear N-ary phase filters is addressed. Using mathematical analysis, expressions were derived for an N-ary phase filter and the intensity variance of an optical correlator output. The N-ary phase filter was shown to consist of an infinite sum of harmonic terms whose periodicity was determined by N. For the intensity variance, it was found that under certain conditions the variance was minimised due to a hitherto undiscovered phase quadrature effect. Comparison showed that optimal real filters produced greater SNR values than the continuous phase versions as a consequence of this effect.

Electrochemical synthesis and characterization of conducting polymers using room temperature melt as an electrolyte

Aromatic monomers can be polymerised using the chloroaluminate room temperature melt obtained by mixing 1:2 ratio of cetyl pyridinium chloride and anhydrous aluminium chloride miscible in all proportions with organic solvents as an electrolyte. The chloroaluminate (AlCl4-) anion generated in this melt having a tetrahedral symmetry with equal bond lengths and bond angles is the dopant to stabilize macrocation generated near the vicinity of anode to yield better conducting and better ordered electronically conducting free standing polymer film. In this communication, we discuss the polymers derived from benzene and pyrrole and their characterization by various techniques.