| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/S43085/01 |
| Title: |
Liquid Crystals for Telecoms Systems |
| Principal Investigator: |
Hanna, Dr S |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Researcher Co-Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Physics |
| Organisation: |
University of Bristol |
| Scheme: |
Faraday (PreFEC) |
| Starts: |
01 October 2003 |
Ends: |
30 September 2005 |
Value (£): |
102,445
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Characterisation |
Materials Synthesis & Growth |
| Optical Communications |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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This is a part of a proposal from the COMIT Faraday partnership to develop the science that will underpin new liquid crystal devices for high speed optical networks. Since these operate at infra-red, rather than visible light wavelengths, there is an urgent need for new liquid crystal materials with high birefringence in this region of the spectrum. Many of the constraints associated with material design for displays may be abandoned for this purpose and this proposal aims to establish new guidelines for the design of liquid crystals with high birefringence at 1.5 microns wavelength. We will establish the utility of model calculations as a predictor for birefringence. Density functional therory will be used to calculate the electronic part and the vibrational contribution will be calculated using molecular mechanics. A number of different candidate groups in elongated molecules will be explored as well as calculations on clusters to assess the importance of electronic correlations. Some measurements of infra-red birefringence and polarized vibrational spectra on new materials emerging from other partners in the project will also be undetaken and the use of vibrational resonances to enhance birefringence over a narrow wavelength range will be assessed.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.bris.ac.uk |