The goal of this project is to prepare and characterize a set of novel electrooptic materials based on monomeric units that are homeomorphically related to compasses and gyroscopes. The desired molecular architectures have a structurally shielded dipole that is free to reorient along a given axis under the influence of external electric and/or magnetic fields. Materials built with molecular compasses and gyroscope will be based on 1, 4-bis-[3-(9-triptycyl) propynyl]-benzenes and 1,4-bus-triarylpropynyl benzenes. These materials are expected to have properties related to those of molecular crystals, plastic crystals and liquid crystals. The materials will be analyzed in detail by X-ray crystallography, solid state NMR, thermal analysis, polarizing microscopy, and dielectric spectroscopy.
The recent availability of intense light sources and recent progress in the areas of materials design and electrooptical phenomena have led to the rapid development of photonics as the most promising technology for the acquisition, storage, transfer and processing of information. While permanent dipolar orientation is desirable for non-linear optical photonics applications, there is also a need for macroscopic systems such as liquid crystals which respond to external fields within very short time-scales.
