Transient holographic grating in azo-dye-doped liquid crystals with off-resonant light

Holographic gratings in nematic liquid crystals doped with Disperse Red 1 (DR1) were investigated using a linearly polarised He–Ne laser. Although the electric transitions of the samples were almost off-resonant, the diffraction of the transient holographic grating was found to exhibit a sinusoidal feature with changing the polarisation of recording beams, and the diffraction intensities and response time of the gratings were strongly dependent on DR1 concentration. The results revealed that the diffraction of holographic grating depends on the rate of trans–cis isomerisation of DR1 molecules. Moreover, the temperature dependence of diffraction indicated that the grating formation mechanism was attributed to photoinduced reorientation of photoisomerisation effect.     

Optical grating recording in highly organized thin films of Disperse Red 1

Optical grating recording with submicrometer spatial resolution, which can handle grey-level patterns, has been investigated in photochromic material made of Disperse Red 1 (DR1) molecules vacuum-deposited on a glass substrate. Holographic gratings of periods Λ within the range of 0.6 μm - 12 μm were recorded by 514.5 nm light from cw Ar⁺ laser using a degenerate two-wave mixing technique. Despite the very small DR1 layer thickness (∼ 0.1 μm), the diffraction efficiency measured in a Raman-Nath scattering regime reached 2 %. The obtained amplitude gratings were analysed with an optical microscope and Fourier transforms. Grating profiles were analysed in relation to exposure conditions and in correlation with molecular organisation. Polarising microscopy studies revealed the presence of light-induced optical anisotropy. Following that, we have checked the possibility of polarisation-sensitive recording in this medium.     

Modified sol-gel films for optical storage

Substituted azobenzene molecules (DR1, DO3, DR17, DY7, Magneson1, DR19C1 and DR19CICI) are grafted onto a silicon alkoxide precursor. Films are prepared by the sol-gel process. We have conducted preliminary optical experiments with DR1 and DO3 functionalized oxide gels. Optical information is written on the sol-gel film via the trans-cis-trans photoisomerization process with a polarized argon laser beam and read with a low power He-Ne laser. A stable signal (up to 60% of the maximum birefringence) is read a long time after the writing beam had been turned off. This shows the ability of the azo oxide gels to store optical information.     

SHG Materials Based on the AlPO4-5 Single Crystals

Large AlPO4-5 molecular sieve single crystals with high optical quality were synthesized hydrothermally by using TPA as template. As-synthesized crystals were calcined under O2 atmosphere to remove the organic templates in the channels. Disperse-Red-1 (DR1) and p-nitroaniline (pNA) molecules have been successfully incorporated into the one-dimensional channels of AlPO4-5 single crystals respectively by means of vapor phase diffusion. XRD patterns reveal that the loading of organic molecules has not destroyed the structures of AlPO4-5 crystals. Polarizing microscope and SHG results indicate that the DR1 and pNA molecules are well aligned in a preferred direction along the crystal channels. The different polarization-dependence SH intensity shows that different SHG processes occur in the DR1- and pNA-loaded AlPO4-5 crystals.     

Preparation of Stable Colloidal Crystals and Macroporous Materials Using Diazoresin as a Thermosetting Agent

Summary: Two kinds of stable colloidal crystals have been prepared from polymeric or SiO₂ colloids in the presence of diazoresin (DR) as a thermosetting agent combining thermal treatment. Following the decomposition of  Nequation/tex2gif-stack-1.gif groups of DR under heating, the ionic bonds between the DR molecules and colloids change to covalent bonds and the colloidal crystals become very stable toward ultrasonic washing. The colloids were then removed by tetrahydrofuran (THF) in the case of organics or by hydrofluoric acid (HF) for the inorganics to leave the macroporous DR materials.

Reactions between the DR molecules and the colloids during thermal treatment.     

PHOTOINDUCED HOLOGRAPHIC PHASE GRATINGS BURIED IN AZOBENZENE SIDE-CHAIN POLYMER FILMS WITH A CHIRAL GROUP

An optically active polymer (PM1) containing azobenzene moieties with a chiral group (s-2-methyl-butyl) wassynthesized by homopolymerization of monomer, 4-[2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyloxy-4'-(s-2-methyl-1-butyl oxycarbonyl)azobenzene, using the free radical polymerization method. The polymer dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) could be easilyprocessed into high optical quality films. The optical anisotropy of the polymer films was investigated by polarizing opticalmicroscopy (POM). The experimental results showed that irradiation with a circularly polarized beam could align theorientation of the molecules in the polymer films. Moreover, the holographic phase gratings of photo-induced polymer filmswere detected by atomic force microscopy (AFM) and POM. In comparison with polymer containing no chiral group, it wasfound from the preliminary measurement of the photo-induced holographic phase gratings that PM1 containing a chiralgroup could form holographic phase gratings buried in the films.     

Assembly of disperse red 1 molecules in the channels of AlPO4-5 single crystals for second-harmonic generation

Disperse red 1 (DR1) molecules have been successfully incorporated into the one-dimensional channels of AlPO4-5 single crystals by means of vapor-phase diffusion. Polarizing microscope and SHG results indicate that the DR1 molecules are well aligned in a preferred direction along the crystal channels. The p-polarization (parallel to the c-axis of AlPO4-5 crystal) SH intensity (Ip-ex), and s-polarization (perpendicular to the c-axis of AlPO4-5 crystal) SH intensity (Is-ex) of DR1-loaded AlPO4-5 single crystals can be well fitted as a function of input polarization angle (alpha): Ip-ex = 0.69 cos4 alpha + 0.37 sin4 alpha - 0.17, Is-ex = 0.69 cos2 alpha sin2 alpha + 0.06, respectively. This polarization angle dependence can be well explained by three different SHG processes of Ip (0 degrees), Ip (90 degrees), and Is (45 degrees), originated from different combinations of two polarized photons.     

Dimeric molecular association of dimethyl sulfoxide in solutions of nonpolar liquids

Although many vibrational spectroscopic studies using infrared (IR) absorption and Raman scattering (RS) techniques revealed that dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) forms intermolecular dimeric associations in the pure liquid state and in solutions, the results of a number of dielectric relaxation studies did not clearly show the presence of such dimers. Recently, we found the presence of dimeric DMSO associations in not only the pure liquid but also in solutions of nonpolar solvents, such as tetrachloromethane (CCl(4)) and benzene (Bz), using dielectric relaxation (DR) techniques, which ranged from 50 MHz to 50 GHz at 25 °C. The dimeric DMSO associations cause a slow dielectric relaxation process with a relaxation time of ca. 23 ps for solutions in CCl(4) (ca. 17 ps in Bz) due to the dissociation into monomeric DMSO molecules, while the other fast relaxation is caused by monomeric DMSO molecules with a relaxation time of ca. 5.0 ps (ca. 5.5 ps in Bz) at 25 °C. A comparison of DR and vibrational spectroscopic data for DMSO solutions demonstrated that the concentration dependence of the relative magnitude of the slow and fast DR strength corresponds well to the two IR and RS bands assigned to the vibrational stretching modes of the sulfoxide groups (S═O) of the dimeric associations and the monomeric DMSO molecules, respectively. Moreover, the concentrations of the dimeric associations ([DIM]) and monomeric DMSO molecules ([MON]) were governed by a chemical equilibrium and an equilibrium constant (K(d) = [DIM](2)[MON](-1)) that was markedly dependent on the concentration of DMSO and the solvent species (K(d) = 2.5 ± 0.5 M(-1) and 0.7 ± 0.1 M(-1) in dilute CCl(4) and Bz solutions, respectively, and dramatically increased to 20-40 M(-1) in pure DMSO at 25 °C).     

Degenerate two-photon absorption spectra in azoaromatic compounds.

A systematic study of the degenerate two-photon absorption (2PA) spectra of seven azoaromatic compounds in dimethyl sulfoxide solution is reported, which employed the Z-scan technique with femtosecond laser pulses from the bottom of the azo compound absorption bands up to 1100 nm. The 2PA peaks for pseudostilbene-type azo compounds (Disperse Orange (DO) 3, Disperse Red (DR) 13, DR1, DR19, and DR19-Cl) were observed at twice the peak wavelength of the linear absorption. However, such peaks were not observed for other azo compounds (PAMINO and DIAMINO) because of the symmetry of these molecules. A resonance enhancement of the 2PA cross-section was observed for all compounds. The 2PA peak and the nonlinear resonance enhancement behavior could be adjusted with a model based on perturbation theory. Such knowledge can be a guideline to the understanding of the 2PA process in azoaromatic compounds.     

分散红掺杂高Tg聚合物母体的非线性光学性质的研究

利用具有非线性光学（ＮＬＯ）活性的分散红（ＤＲＩ）掺杂高玻璃化转变温度的酚酞聚羟基醚（ＰＨＰ）和酚酞－联苯二酚－二氯二苯酮三元共聚物（ＰＰＨＢＰ－ＤＣＢＰ ｃｏｐｏｌｙｍｅｒ），得到了两种掺杂型非线性光学材料。升温电晕极化（ＣＯＰＥＴ）表明有较高的取向和较慢松驰，并推算了极化场强度Ｅｐ和二阶非线性系数ｄ３３。     

Structure and growth of thin films of aniline on silver: nucleation and premelting of nanocrystallites, porosity, and crystallization

The structure and growth of thin films of aniline vapor deposited on Ag(111) and Ag(110) surfaces have been examined using optical second harmonic generation (SHG) and linear optical differential reflectivity (DR). Aniline thin films deposited at 90 K give a detectable SH signal that arises from small polycrystallites with orientation anisotropy in the film. Upon annealing, the SH signal decreases, first due to premelting (at approximately 145 K) of the polycrystallites and then sublimation (at approximately 180 K) of the film. Quantitative analysis of the SH intensity change by a premelting model [J. Phys. Chem. 1988, 92, 7241] allows the determination of the average size of the crystallites as 1.1 nm in diameter and containing approximately 45 aniline molecules. The existence of the nanocrystalline structure and its premelting are confirmed by DR experiments. The DR signal around 145 K exhibits change corresponding to an order-disorder transition. Quantitative analysis of the DR data results in the same nanocrystallite size. Experimental observations indicate that films deposited at 90 K contain not only nanocrystallites but also approximately 30% porosity, which can be reduced by annealing. At temperatures above 195 K, micron-size crystallites start to form within the amorphous film, causing a large amount of light scattering while the film sublimates. It appears that, for molecules such as aniline with stronger intermolecular interactions, more enthalpy is released, upon adsorption to the local surrounding molecules, causing them to reorient into crystalline form. The low deposition temperature, on the other hand, prevents diffusion for further crystallization beyond nanocrystallites. The refractive index of the amorphous aniline solid can be determined as 1.68 +/- 0.03.     

Self-assembled film based on carboxymethyl-beta-cyclodextrin and diazoresin and its binding properties for methylene blue

Polyelectrolyte-layered films containing beta-cyclodextrin (beta-CD) were fabricated by a layer-by-layer deposition of carboxymethyl-beta-cyclodextrin (CM-beta-CD) as a polyanion and cationic photosensitive diazoresin (DR) on a solid surface. Under UV irradiation, following the decomposition of diazonium group between the adjacent interfaces of the multilayers, the ionic bonds of the self-assembly film convert to covalent bonds and the film become stable toward many common organic solvent. When a high-ionic-strength buffer is employed as a bathing solution, the film is thicker than that deposited from water solution. And the deposition increases with the increase of the carboxymethylated degree of CM-beta-CD. The CM-beta-CD/DR film can bind methylene blue (MB), and the durability of MB-adsorbing films to reductive glucose indicates that MB molecules not only diffuse into the film, but also load to the cavity of beta-CD through a host-guest complexation assisted by electrostatic interactions. The binding quantity of MB increases linearly with increasing the number of bilayers, and is influenced obviously by the pH value of MB aqueous solution. MB molecules can desorb from the 12-bilayer MB-absorbing CM-beta-CD/DR films when being immersed in water/ethanol mixture, and the released quantity of MB increases a little with increasing the concentration of water when it is below 30%, while decreases evidently over 30%.     

NMR studies of water in polyimide films

Commercial polyimide films containing up to ～ 3 wt % water have been studied by proton, deuteron, and oxygen-17 nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Comparisons between NMR results and previous dielectric relaxation (DR) results for a variety of Kapton films show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between specific dielectric loss peaks and features of the ²H or ¹⁷O NMR spectra. It is concluded that water molecules, which interact only weakly with the polymer, reside in the polyimide matrix in two configurations, randomly oriented single molecules and chains of water molecules oriented perpendicular to the plane of the film. The correspondence between NMR and DR observed in water in Kapton extends to water in Upilex and to methanol and acetic acid in Kapton. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Dynamics of photoinduced orientational order of azo-dyes in polymer films

Dynamical and spectral behavior of photoassisted electrical poling and photoinduced anisotropy are studied in films of DR1-doped PMMA, DR1-PMMA copolymer and new DR1-Polyimide copolymer. The orientational mobility of DR1 is characterized both in ordering processes (angularly selective trans-cis photoisomerization) and in disordering relaxation processes. Mobility is increased by the photoisomerization and decreases slowly with time, after the end of optical pumping. The transient dichroism recorded simultaneously on six probe wavelengths shows a spectral inhomogeneity of the absorption band of DR1 and of the photoinduced anisotropy (particularly in polyimide films).     

High T(g) photorefractive polymers: influence of the chromophores' beta tensor

In this paper we study the effect of the chromophores' beta tensor active components on the diffraction efficiency of a high T(g) photorefractive polymer. In particular, we study the two simplest structures with nonvanishing dipole moment, the one-dimension push-pull systems, and the Lambda-shaped chromophores. We have developed a model that relate the diffraction efficiency expression with experimental conditions and microscopic properties of the molecules used. Using this model we determine the optimum experimental conditions for both kinds of chromophores and the criteria for the design of chromophores with improved microscopic properties. The model was also used to evaluate the diffraction efficiency of the chromophore Disperse Red 1 (DR1) with a good agreement with experimental data present in bibliography, and of other chromophores selected with the criteria derived from the model, using quantum mechanical calculations to obtain the microscopic properties. Using the designed chromophores diffraction efficiencies more than one order of magnitude higher than that calculated for DR1 with the experimental conditions has been obtained in simulations. These chromophores also exhibit a low dependency of eta on the electric field polarization in contrast to the DR1 or the low T(g) photoreactive materials.     

单体结构对全息聚合物分散液晶光栅稳定性的影响

使用3种不同化学结构的单体材料制备了全息聚合物分散液晶光栅,并从光栅形貌、衍射能力、驱动特性、聚合物热稳定性4个方面评价了光栅的热稳定性.研究发现,含有刚性结构单体材料体系的光栅形貌、衍射能力等方面在200℃的温度下没有明显变化.表明光栅的热稳定性与单体材料的化学结构密切相关,单体材料中含有刚性结构有助于光栅热稳定性的提高.利用热重分析(TGA)对光栅中聚合物材料热分解温度进行了测定,并结合Freeman-Carroll微商法计算出了上述聚合物的分解活化能和分解反应级数.结果发现,含有刚性结构的聚合物材料的热分解温度、分解活化能和分解反应级数都高于柔性链结构材料,进一步验证了材料体系中刚性结构的添加有助于提高光栅的热稳定性.     

偶氮聚合物表面起伏光栅用于液晶定向研究

液晶显示具有低功耗、高画质、轻巧等优点，广泛应用于各种平板显示装置．使液晶分子能在显示器中均匀的定向排列是液晶显示的关键技术之一．液晶定向技术的主要方法有摩擦法、SiOx等氧化物或Au、Pt等金属蒸镀法、紫外偏振光(或激光)辐照法等．所谓摩擦法，即通过将基片在均匀移动的丝绒布表面摩擦来实现的．一般认为摩擦法是通过摩擦在基板表面形成的微沟槽来诱导     

Dissociative recombination of NH4+ and ND4+ ions: storage ring experiments and ab initio molecular dynamics

The dissociative recombination (DR) process of NH4+ and ND4+ molecular ions with free electrons has been studied at the heavy-ion storage ring CRYRING (Manne Siegbahn Laboratory, Stockholm University). The absolute cross sections for DR of NH4+ and ND4+ in the collision energy range 0.001-1 eV are reported, and thermal rate coefficients for the temperature interval from 10 to 2000 K are calculated from the experimental data. The absolute cross section for NH4+ agrees well with earlier work and is about a factor of 2 larger than the cross section for ND4+. The dissociative recombination of NH4+ is dominated by the product channels NH3+H (0.85+/-0.04) and NH2+2H (0.13+/-0.01), while the DR of ND4+ mainly results in ND3+D (0.94+/-0.03). Ab initio direct dynamics simulations, based on the assumption that the dissociation dynamics is governed by the neutral ground-state potential energy surface, suggest that the primary product formed in the DR process is NH3+H. The ejection of the H atom is direct and leaves the NH3 molecule highly vibrationally excited. A fraction of the excited ammonia molecules may subsequently undergo secondary fragmentation forming NH2+H. It is concluded that the model results are consistent with gross features of the experimental results, including the sensitivity of the branching ratio for the three-body channel NH2+2H to isotopic exchange.     

Selecting a reduced suite of diagnostic ratios calculated between petroleum biomarkers and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons to characterize a set of crude oils

A set of 34 crude oils was analysed by GC-MS (SIM mode) and a suite of 28 diagnostic ratios (DR) calculated. They involved 18 ratios between biomarker molecules (hopanes, steranes, diasteranes and triaromatic steroids) and 10 quotients between polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Three unsupervised pattern recognition techniques (i.e., principal components analysis, heatmap hierarchical cluster analysis and Kohonen neural networks) were employed to evaluate the final dataset and, thus, ascertain whether the crude oils grouped as a function of their geographical origin. In addition, an objective variable selection procedure based on Procrustes Rotation was undertaken to select a reduced set of DR that comprised for most of the information in the original data without loosing relevant information. A reduced set of four DR (namely; TA21, D2/P2, D3/P3 and B(a)F/4-Mpy) demonstrated to be sufficient to characterize the crude oils and the groups they formed.     

Anomalous dielectric relaxation of water molecules at the surface of an aqueous micelle

Dielectric relaxation of aqueous solutions of micelles, proteins, and many complex systems shows an anomalous dispersion at frequencies intermediate between those corresponding to the rotational motion of bulk water and that of the organized assembly or macromolecule. The precise origin of this anomalous dispersion is not well-understood. In this work we employ large scale atomistic molecular dynamics simulations to investigate the dielectric relaxation (DR) of water molecules in an aqueous micellar solution of cesium pentadecafluorooctanoate. The simulations clearly show the presence of a slow component in the moment-moment time correlation function [PhiMW(t)] of water molecules, with a time constant of about 40 ps, in contrast to only 9 ps for bulk water. Interestingly, the orientational time correlation function [Cmu(t)] of individual water molecules at the surface exhibits a component with a time constant of about 19 ps. We show that these two time constants can be related by the well-known micro-macrorelations of statistical mechanics. In addition, the reorientation of surface water molecules exhibits a very slow component that decays with a time constant of about 500 ps. An analysis of hydrogen bond lifetime and of the rotational relaxation in the coordinate frame fixed on the micellar body seems to suggest that the 500 ps component owes its origin to the existence of an extended hydrogen bond network of water molecules at the surface. However, this ultraslow component is not found in the total moment-moment time correlation function of water molecules in the solution. The slow DR of hydration water is found to be well correlated with the slow solvation dynamics of cesium ions at the water-micelle interface.