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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: GR/S68439/01
Title: Novel Chevron And Banana-Shaped Materials For Photonic And Electrical Devices
Principal Investigator: Ashwell, Professor G
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Project Partners:
Department: Sch of Engineering
Organisation: Cranfield University
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 04 October 2004 Ends: 28 February 2007 Value (£): 80,642
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Materials Synthesis & Growth
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Aerospace, Defence and Marine Chemicals
Electronics
Related Grants:
GR/S68422/01
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
A recent discovery at Cranfield resulted in the non-centrosymmetric alignment of molecules without aliphatic tails by the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique, the films exhibiting a high second-order susceptibility (J. Mater. Chem. 2002, 12, 2181) and molecular rectification (J. Phys. Chem. B 2002, 106, 12158). The molecules differ from those normally considered suitable for LB deposition by having a chevron-shaped rather than a linear molecular structure but, nonetheless, on-going studies have demonstrated alignment in 75% of samples, albeit of only four so far investigated.This proposal concerns a development of the discovery and is driven by current research at Hull on banana-shaped liquid crystals, which have the same basic structure as the chevrons for alignment. An attempt will be made to correlate the molecular geometry and organisation of banana-shaped materials and to exploit their unique liquid crystalline phases. Analogues for both LB deposition and molecular self-assembly will be synthesised, the latter being achieved via a thiol link between the molecule and a gold-coated substrate.Molecules will be theoretically modelled to influence the alignment and consequently, the nonlinear optical and nonlinear electrical properties, with the aim of optimising the second-harmonic intensity and the current rectification ratio.
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Organisation Website: http://www.cranfield.ac.uk