Nano-Engineering of Molecular Interactions in Organic Electro-Optic Materials

Integration of electronic and photonic devices, especially chip-scale integration, is dramatically impacting telecommunication, computing, and sensing technologies (Dalton et. al., 2010; Dalton & Benight, 2011; Benight et. al., 2009). For organic electronics and photonics, control of molecular order is crucial for effective device performance. For organic photonics, formation of molecular aggregates can result in unacceptable optical loss. For organic electronics, molecular aggregates can adversely influence charge mobilities. Control of intermolecular electrostatic interactions can be exploited to control molecular organization including molecular orientation. Such control can lead to optimized material homogeneity and optical transparency and also to control of molecular conductivity. Here we focus on techniques for systematically nano-engineering desired intermolecular electrostatic interactions into organic electroactive materials. While our primary focus will be on electrooptic materials (which require acentric molecular organization), the discussion is also relevant to optimizing the performance of photorefractive, electronic, photovoltaic, and opto-electronic materials.