Academic Research Infrastructure Program funds will be employed to acquire equipment for the molecular engineering and investigation of selected organic and oarganometallic materials with potential applications for photonic devices. The equipment will in include a neodymium yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG) laser with a 5 nanosecond pulse width with substantial output at the second and third harmonics; a pulsed dye laser with substantial wavelength tunability to be pumped by the YAG laser; a optical isolator; a fast digital oscilloscope; various optical components such as mirrors, beam splitters, polarizers, etc; a Langmuir-Blodgett trough for the preparation of Langmuir- Blodgett molecular films; and an interface and control computer. The research will be on photorefractive and other nonlinear optical and electro-optical properties of organometallic materials and doped organic materials and polymers. These materials will be studied to investigate their suitability for applications such as phase conjugate mirrors, light modulators, optical switches etc. The photorefractive studies will be studied by four-wave mixing, optical phase conjugation, beam coupling, and diffraction efficiency approaches. Doping with different metal complexes or donor- acceptor groups and changing the length of the pi-electron chains will be used to yield large nonlinear and electro- optical responses. Several lasers and associated optical equipment will be acquired for the purpose of studying the photorefractive properties of organic and organometallic materials. The study of these materials will determine their suitability for use in optical devices such as phase conjugate mirrors, light modulators, and optical switches.
