This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).
This Small Business Technology Transfer Research (STTR) Phase II project seeks to commercialize an innovative technology for depositing thin films and heterostructures of functional polymers, functionalized nanoparticles and nanoparticle-loaded polymers. Laser vapor deposition (LVD - trademarked) can be used to increase efficiency and reduce cost of thin-film devices as varied as organic light emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic solar cells and polymer chemosensors. This project will prove that LVD can meet industrial production requirements by (a) performing scaling studies of the process-throughout versus laser power in various process configurations and (b) building a table-top mid-infrared laser prototype using nonlinear optical frequency conversion from a commercially available high-power near-infrared laser. This objective will be supported by thorough studies on the physical mechanism of laser-materials interaction under mid-infrared vibrational excitation. The outcome of this project will also provide the development roadmap for high power industrial lasers for materials processing applications in mid-infrared wavelength spectrum.
The broader impact/commercial potential from this technology will be the technique for mass production of thin-film organic optoelectronics devices. For example, the OLED is an energy-efficient display and solid-state lighting device. Widespread adoption of solid-state lighting products such as white-light OLEDs could cut the US consumption of electricity for lighting by 29%, while saving the nation's households about $125 billion in the process, according to the Department of Energy. It would also reduce America's dependence on foreign oil and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, thereby improving the environment. Furthermore, LVD will accelerate the penetration of organic electronics into the consumer space and create new applications such as flexible displays. Just as polymers have replaced metal in everything from children's toys to automobiles, polymers are revolutionizing electronics and optoelectronics by reducing costs and opening new markets for devices such as polymer electronics and nanostructured displays. In addition, the blueprint of table-top high-power lasers developed in this process will provide a new path into ultra-short-pulse laser materials processing applications in the near and mid-infrared.
Objective. The objective of this Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Phase II project was to develop and demonstrate the potential of laser vapor deposition (LVD™) for commercialization. LVD™ is an innovative technology developed by AppliFlex LLC for depositing thin films and heterostructures of polymers, functionalized nanoparticles and nanoparticle-loaded polymers. LVD™ utilizes mid-infrared lasers to convert organic materials to a gaseous plume for deposition on (or removal from) surfaces with minimal fragmentation. In other words, LVD™ gently trans-forms a bulk material into a thin film without compromising the functional properties of the mate-rial, whereas traditional techniques are prone to destroy fragile polymers during the deposition. Furthermore, LVD™ is effective with a large number of organic and polymer materials, including insoluble polymers such as Teflon®, whereas traditional thermal and liquid-phase deposition methods are only applicable to a limited number of organic materials. With LVD™ process, it is also possible to blend multiple materials and build nano-scale structures to enhance their proper-ties. Accomplishments. In this project, we demonstrated the commercial potential of LVD™ for deposit-ing multilayer structures of polymers and nanomaterials. These engineered thin films exhibited unique physical characteristics such as high refractive index and excellent barrier properties against oxygen and water. In addition, such multilayer films can form a conformal coating on curved, plastic substrates, which is difficult to achieve with traditional methods. Therefore, LVD™ can be employed in a variety of applications such as barrier coating on OLED (organic light emitting diodes) and anti-reflection coating on plastic substrates. This project also led to the design of a practical, high-power industrial laser for materials processing applications in the mid-infrared spectral range, as well as process diagnostic technologies. Thus, the project directly con-nected frontier science and technological insights to the practical constraints of commercialization. Outcomes. This project produced a path to implementing the LVD™ technique for mass produc-tion of thin-film organic opto-electronics devices. The prototype applications we demonstrated have utility ranging from organic electronics and biomedical science to homeland security. Just as polymers have replaced metal in everything from children’s toys to automobiles, polymers are revolutionizing electronics and opto-electronics by reducing costs and opening new markets for devices such as polymer electronics and nanostructured displays. In addition, the blueprint for table-top high-power lasers developed in this project provides a new route to ultrashort-pulse la-ser materials processing applications in the near and mid-infrared spectral region. Broader impact. This STTR project linked a small business with a research institution (Vanderbilt University) and a minority institution (Fisk University) through a successful collaborative research project. The unique collaboration that leverages the expertise of a small business and universities benefitted all parties by speeding up the technology transfer and commercialization of university and small-business technologies. Also important is the fact that this collaboration introduced and exposed minority students and scholars to industrial engineering applications through the STTR research to guide them to science and engineering careers.
