Light-powered molecular machines are conjectured to be essential constituents of future nanoscale devices. As a model for such systems, we have synthesized a polymer of bistable photosensitive azobenzenes. Individual polymers were investigated by single-molecule force spectroscopy in combination with optical excitation in total internal reflection. We were able to optically lengthen and contrac...

A facile and green approach for the synthesis of amphibious fluorescent carbon dots (CDs) from natural polysaccharide is reported. Light-emitting polymer nanocomposites with excellent optical performance can be easily prepared by incorporation of the amphibious CDs into the polymer matrix.

Under mechanical stress, the hexaarylbiimidazole (HABI) motif can cleave to triphenylimidazolyl radicals when incorporated into a polymer matrix. The mechanically produced coloured radicals can initiate secondary radical reactions yielding polymer networks. Thus, the HABI mechanophore combines optical reporting of bond scission and reinforcement of polymers in a single molecular moiety.

Ordered and free-standing metallic nanowires were fabricated by e-beam deposition on patterned polymer templates made by interference lithography. The dimensions of the nanowires can be controlled through adjustment of deposition conditions and polymer templates. Grain size, polarized optical transmission and electrical resistivity were measured with ordered and free-standing nanowires.

We will discuss a novel non-contact removal technique of optical fiber coating in continuous and uninterrupted manner with hot air stream. We observed little degradation of the tensile strength of the optical fiber after removing the protective polymer coating and the mean breaking tensile strength of the stripped optical fiber using non-contact removal method was 5.1GPa. key words: non-contact...

Commercial acceptance of microstructured polymer optical fibres (MPOFs) is dependent on their delivery of an acceptable combination of loss and bandwidth. This paper describes recent advances in one attempt at quantifying multimode MPOF performance with a view to developing various graded index MPOFs (GIMPOFs) using structures made up of either air or polymer-filled holes.

In this Communication, we show that nanometer scale control of semiconducting polymer chain conformation is possible using host/guest chemistry in highly ordered and macroscopically oriented thin films of mesoporous silica. This control leads to a thin film composite material that is optically transparent, densely filled with polymer, and has highly polarized optical properties. Calculations of...

Polymer thin films have numerous technical applications as functional coatings, the most prominent example being PMMA coatings for lithography of integrated circuits and micromechanical devices. Polymer blends and block copolymers can be tailored for specific mechanical, optical, electric, and chemical properties. For instance, functional surfaces have been created by means of polymer blend and...

Channel waveguides based on a polymer, 6fluorinated-dianhydride/epoxy, which is actively doped with a rare-earth-ion-doped complex, Nd(thenoyltrifluoroacetone)3 1,10-phenanthroline, have been fabricated. Photoluminescence peaks at 880 nm, 1060 nm, and 1330 nm have been experimentally observed. By optimization of the fabrication procedure of both, host material and optical structure, continuous-...