CAREER: Organic Photonic Materials and Plastic Optoelectronic Technologies

Georgia Tech Research Corporation, Atlanta GA

Investigators

Abstract

The program is an integrated research and teaching effort in the field of Organic Photonic Materials and Plastic Optoelectronic Technologies. The proposed research will focus on the study of charge-transfer in photorefractive polymers and light-emission in conjugated molecules and polymers. The research will consist of three major tasks that are highly connected. One area is the study of electronically engineered photorefractive polymers in which the relative energy of the frontier orbitals of the sensitizer, transport molecule, and the chromophore are controlled and systematically varied with the goal of developing new materials with sub-ms response times. The second area includes the development of photorefractive polymers based on two-photon absorption sensitizers. The third area includes fabrication, testing, and modeling of organic electroluminescent devices based on a new generation of photo-addressable molecules and polymers with controlled frontier orbital energies and good photochemical stability with emphasis of developing full color displays on plastic substrates. A broader goal of the program is to use the proposed multidisciplinary teaching approach as a vehicle to create equivalent curriculums in other universities and educate students for cross-disciplinary and knowledge-based career environment for the optoelectronics and information technology industry (specifically, low cost, light weight, flexible optoelectronic devices).This program will sustain and strengthen an existing partnership between scientists from several departments including Optical Sciences, the Departments of, Chemistry, Physics, and Materials Science and Engineering at The University of Arizona.