Chemical Reactions in the Manufacture of Waveguides for Long Distance Optical Data Transmission

One of the modern high technologies which has advanced enormously in the last few years is glass fiber technology. This is used in the manufacture of glass fibers for lighting purposes and for the optical transfer of analog and digital data with a high transfer density. The technical demands made on the glass fibers required for data transfer, the optical waveguides, are extremely high and are already fulfilled to a large extent by industry. At present about four million kilometers of fiber, worth ca. 800 million DM are produced worldwide (10% in the Federal Republic of Germany). Numerous chemical processes take place during the manufacture of optical waveguides. However, in contrast both to the high and constantly growing demands on the quality and to the increasing production volume of such fibers, little is in fact known about the reactions involved. The present article will attempt to develop a picture of the multifarious reactions occurring in the course of this technical process on the basis of literature data and our own studies.     

Novel fiber-optic biosensor based on immobilized glutathione S-transferase and sol–gel entrapped bromcresol green for the determination of atrazine

The aim of this work was to investigate, for the first time, the potential of the enzyme glutathione S-transferase I (isoenzyme GST-I) for uses in analytical chemistry. A novel fiber-optic biosensor for the detection and determination of the triazine herbicide atrazine was developed based on maize GST-I expressed in E. coli. The sensing bioactive material was a three-layer mini-sandwich. The enzyme was immobilized on the outer layer that consisted of a hydrophilic polyvinylidenefluoride membrane. This membrane was supported on an inner glass disk by means of an intermediate binder sol–gel layer that incorporated bromcresol green (BCG). The biosensor operated in a static mode at 25 °C and the rate of the enzymatic reaction, using atrazine as a substrate, served as an analytical signal. A calibration curve was obtained for atrazine, with analytically useful concentration range 2.52–125 μM. The sensor detection limit was 0.84 μM. The reproducibility of atrazine sensing was in the order of ±3–5%. The method was successfully applied to the determination of this herbicide in real water samples, without sample preparation steps. Atrazine recovery ranged between 85 and 110%. No interference from other pesticides, such as alachlor and carbaryl was observed in the absence of atrazine. The immobilized enzyme retained about 75% of its original activity after 1 month use. Simply unscrewing the terminal holding ring of the probe and placing a new bioactive sandwich could easily replace a deteriorated mini-sandwich.     

Two-photon absorption in quadrupolar pi-conjugated molecules: influence of the nature of the conjugated bridge and the donor-acceptor separation

Quadrupolar-type substitution of pi-conjugated chromophores with donor and acceptor groups has been shown to increase their two-photon absorption (TPA) response by up to two orders of magnitude. Here, we apply highly correlated quantum-chemical calculations to evaluate the impact of the nature of conjugated bridge and the charge-transfer distance on that enhancement. We compare chromophores with phenylenevinylene-, thienylenevinylene-, polyene-, and indenofluorene-type backbones substituted by dimethylamino and cyano groups. In all compounds, we find a strongly TPA-active A(g) state (either 2A(g) or 3A(g)) in the low-energy region, as well as a higher lying TPA-active state (mA(g)) at close to twice the energy of the lowest lying one-photon allowed state; the smaller energy detuning in the mA(g) states results in very large TPA cross sections delta. We also investigate the influence of the degree of ground-state polarization on TPA. Independent of the nature of the backbone and the donor-acceptor separation, delta displays the same qualitative evolution with a maximum before the cyanine-like limit; the highest TPA cross sections are calculated for distirylbenzene- and polyene-based systems.     

Structural dependence of non-linear optical properties of 4-Dimethylamino-3-cyanobiphenyl

 4-Dimethylamino-3-cyanobiphenyl (4-DMA-3-CB) was characterized with respect to linear and nonlinear optical properties in a crystal as well as in solution. The crystal structure was studied dependent on the crystallization conditions. It is shown that the crystal structure exhibiting NLO-activity can completely be solved by a combination of electron diffraction and computer modeling. There are four molecules per unit cell in the space group Pna2₁ with dimensions a=10.28 Å, b=22.64 Å, c=5.27 Å. From this model structure the values and orientation of the dipole μ and static second order polarizability β can be calculated. Their relevance to the values obtained by a combination of polarization dependent measurements of Electric Field Induced Second Harmonic Generation (EFISH) and Hyper-Rayleigh-Scattering (HRS) in solution are discussed. The molecular second order polarizability tensor was found to be dominated by one single component. The orientations of the dipole and the vectorial parts of the second order polarizability delivered by the semiempirical calculations are in good agreement with the results of the EFISH and HRS-measurements and allow a deeper insight into the nonlinear optical properties of the crystal. Received: 15 April 1996 Accepted: 21 June 1996     

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman Scattering Microscopy.

Coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy is presented as a new nonlinear optical technique. The combination of vibrational spectroscopy and microscopy allows highly sensitive investigations of unlabelled samples. CARS is an ideal tool for studying a broad variety of samples. The main drawback of the technique is its non-zero-background nature, which implies that the signal has to be detected against a nonresonant background. The need to solve this problem is reflected in the rapid technological developments that have been observed during the last decade. Recent results show that CARS microscopy has the potential to become an important complementary technique that can be used with other well-established microscopic methods. Although it has some limitations, it offers unique access to many problems that cannot be tackled with conventional techniques. For this reason, it can be expected that the impressive growth of the field will continue.     

Basic Characteristics of Synchrotron Radiation

Many advances have been made in chemical structure research over the past three decades using synchrotron radiation. Synchrotron radiation has a number of unique properties. They include high brightness, high collimation, broad energy spectrum, variable polarization, coherent power, and subnanosecond pulse width. The third-generation storage rings with wiggler and undulator sources and lower electron beam dimensions are delivering over 10¹² times higher brightness than laboratory-based sources. The future of synchrotron sources looks very promising with the development of energy recovery linac sources and free-electron laser sources. These will permit dynamic studies of chemical structure with subpicosecond time resolution. Commensurate with the development of X-ray sources, major progress has occurred in optical schemes to meet the challenging needs of chemical structure research. High-resolution monochromatization and submicron focusing of X rays present new avenues for the future.     

Progress on phthalocyanine-conjugated Ag and Au nanoparticles: Synthesis,characterization, and photo-physicochemical properties

Phthalocyanine (Pc) complexes are an important class of dyes with numerous (e.g., biological, photophysical, and analytical) applications. Among the methods used to improve the properties of these complexes, one should mention the introduction of different substituents, variation of the central metal ion, ligand exchange, and conjugation to nanomaterials (e.g., carbon-based nanomaterials and metal nanoparticles (NPs)). This work briefly reviews Pc complex conjugation to Ag and Au NPs, highlights the different NP shapes, and discusses the diversity of conjugation approaches. Moreover, the use of UV–Vis spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to characterize Pc-NP hybrids is summarized. The effect of conjugation on Pc photo-physicochemical properties (fluorescence, singlet oxygen generation, triplet state formation, and optical limiting behavior) is discussed, and future perspectives for the synthesis and applications of new hybrids are provided.     

Synthesis and Characterization of Fluoro- and Chloro- bimetallic Alkoxides as Precursors for Luminescent Metal Oxide Materials via Sol-Gel Technique

Heterobimetallic alkoxides are broadly recognized as versatile precursors for luminescence materials, and efforts are being made to develop novel routes by applying the concept of geometrical molecular design, for their synthesis and to design a single source precursor suited to photoluminescent materials. Novel and new series of bimetallic alkoxides has been prepared by metathesis route. They exhibit a lower sensitivity towards hydrolysis and so they are easier to handle as compared to other alkoxides. All the compounds were characterized by elemental analysis, FT-IR and multinuclear NMR spectroscopies. FT-IR revealed that the molecular structure of these metal alkoxides was retained to a large extent in 4 ： 1 halogenated alcohol-benzene solution. The heteronuclear NMR spectroscopy provided useful information about chemical shifts for better understanding the likely structure based on interactions with their coordinate metals. The mass spectra show similar types of fragmentation pattern. SEM-EDS analyses showed consistency with the formulation. XRD patterns show an enhanced homogeneity at high temperature. TGA measurements show that thermal decomposition occured in steps that depended entirely on the chemical compositions and the synthesis routes. SEM observation reveals that the morphology and particle size strongly depend on synthesis routes for their precursors.     

Doped Sol-Gel Films for Silica-on-Silicon Photonic Components

Further expansion of optical communication systems depends strongly on the development of cheap component technologies for functions such as switching, demultiplexing and amplification. Silica-on-silicon is increasingly recognised as the best approach to low cost integrated optics for such applications, but so far the functionality is limited. The purpose of NODES, a basic research collaboration sponsored by the European Union under the programme ESPRIT, has been to examine the application of sol-gel to a highly functional silica-on-silicon technology. In particular, the project has investigated film processing and characterisation, rare-earth doping for amplification, and semiconductor nanocrystallite doping for nonlinear functions. This paper presents the background and context to this work, summarises the technical results obtained, and discusses requirements and challenges for successful application of sol-gel in photonics.