A novel mesogen‐jacketed liquid crystalline electroluminescent polymer with both thiophene and oxadiazole in conjugated side chain

Mesogen‐jacketed liquid crystalline polymers (MJLCPs) with both electron‐transport oxadiazole and hole‐transport thiophene in the side chain were reported for their promising electroluminescent property. Monomers of 2,5‐bis{5‐[(4‐alkoxyphenyl)‐1,3,4‐oxadiazole]thiophen‐2‐yl}styrene (M‐Cm, m is the number of the carbons in the alkoxy groups, m = 8,10) were synthesized and confirmed by ¹H‐NMR, mass spectrometry, and elemental analysis. The corresponding polymers were successfully obtained and characterized by thermal analysis, optical spectroscopy, cyclic voltammetry, electroluminescent analysis, polarized light microscopy (PLM), and wide‐angle X‐ray diffraction (WAXD). The polymers exhibited high decomposition temperatures reaching 382 °C and high T_g's reaching 184 °C. The absorption spectra indicated that both the monomers and polymers had little aggregation in film than that in solution, and the absorption spectra of the polymers showed an obvious blue‐shift compared with those of the monomers. Both the monomers and the polymers had blue‐green emission, and the photoluminescence spectra of the polymers in film suggested the formation of excimer or exciplex. The polymers showed lower HOMO energy levels and LUMO energy levels than those of the MJLCPs containing oxadiazole unit reported before. Electroluminescence study with the device configuration of ITO/PEDOT/PVK/polymer/TPBI/Ca/Ag showed maximum brightness and current efficiency of 541 cd/m² and 0.10 cd/A, which proved that the introduction of directly connected electron‐ and hole‐transport units could greatly improve the EL property of side‐chain conjugated polymers. The phase structures of the polymers were confirmed to be smectic A phase through the results of PLM and WAXD. The annealed samples emitted polarized photoluminescence at room temperature, which indicated potential utility for practical applications in display. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem 48: 1502–1515, 2010     

Electroluminescent block copolymers containing oxadiazole and thiophene via ATRP

Block copolymers containing thiophene units in one block and oxadiazole (OXD) units in the other were prepared. Atom transfer radical polymerization method was used to obtain the thiophene‐containing mesogen‐jacketed polymers, and the kinetic study indicated that the polymerization was controllable and the polymers could be used to initiate the polymerization of the OXD‐containing monomers. Photoluminescent spectra indicated that the fluorescence quantum yields of the polymers increased with increasing content of OXD. And, more OXD domains, that is, more interfaces between the hole‐transport parts and electron‐transport parts, resulting in the higher probability of exciplex formation. The electroluminescent devices containing the block copolymer with 64 mol % OXD as the emissive layer had a maximum brightness of 127 cd/m² and an extremely low onset voltage of 7.7 V, which indicated that the injection and transport of charge carriers were facilitated and the number of charge carriers was sufficiently high in early time after the voltage was turned on. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Polym Sci Part A: Polym Chem, 2010     

Teleportation of a general two-mode coherent-state superposition via attenuated quantum channels with ideal and/or threshold detectors

Three novel probabilistic yet conclusive schemes are proposed to teleport a general two-mode coherent-state superposition via attenuated quantum channels with ideal and/or threshold detectors. The calculated total success probability is highest (lowest) when only ideal (threshold) detectors are used.     

Bistable reflectivity in bulky semiconductors due to two photon-biexciton transitions

A new mechanism has been proposed for optical bistability in a bulk system of interacting photons and biexcitons. Bistable behaviour can occur for very low pumping intensities if the input light frequency is clearly less than the two-photon resonance of the biexciton.     

Application of stochastic analytic hierarchy process within a domestic appliance manufacturer

The stochastic analytic hierarchy process (SAHP) provides a mechanism for achieving more effective selection of alternatives in the form of considering multi and conflicting criteria using quantitative and qualitative information under uncertainty. In contrast to the traditional analytic hierarchy process, the SAHP uses probabilistic distributions to incorporate uncertainty that people have in converging their judgements of preferences into a Likert scale. The vector of priorities is calculated using Monte Carlo simulation, the final rankings are analysed for rank reversal using statistical analysis, and managerial aspects are introduced systematically. The present paper demonstrates an application of the SAHP in a world-class domestic appliance manufacturer. The case study was carried out by strictly following a disciplined and organized methodology for applying the SAHP developed by the authors. The results of this study were encouraging to key personnel within the company, establishing a greater opportunity to explore the applications of the SAHP in other core business processes.     

Simulating listener errors in using genetic algorithms for perceptual optimization

The genetic algorithm (GA) was previously suggested for fitting hearing aid or cochlear implant features by using listener's subjective judgment. In the present study, two human factors that might affect the outcome of the GA when used for perceptual optimization were explored with simulations. Listeners with varying sensitivity in discriminating sentences of different intelligibility and with varying error rates in entering their judgment to the GA were simulated. A comparison of the simulation results with the results from human subjects reported by Ba?kent et al. Ear Hear. 28(3) 277-289 (2007) showed that these factors could reduce the performance of the GA considerably.     

Influence of the central metal atom on the nonlinear optical properties of MPcs solutions and thin films

Third order nonlinear optical susceptibility (χ^〈3〉) of metallophthalocyanines (MPcs, where M = Co, Cu, Zn, Mg) thin films and solutions was investigated by standard backward degenerate four wave mixing (DFWM) method at 532 nm. Third harmonic generation (THG) measurement at 1064 nm performed on MPcs thin films is also discussed. MPcs thin films were grown by conventional thermal evaporation in high vacuum and solution were dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF), in which the studied materials are soluble. In the case of microscopic nonlinearity, we calculated the second order hyperpolarizability (γ) for MPcs solutions. We found that the χ^〈3〉 and the γ values are affected by the nature of the central metal atom. We also found that the value is larger than that measured via THG experiment. The variation in χ^〈3〉 values occurs due to the different resonance contributions.