Photochromic liquid hydrogels as hosts for holographic materials
The goal of this project is to develop, fabricate, and test advanced optical materials for potential applications to real-time holography based on liquid crystalline polymer hydrogels. In this project, the authors are investigating the feasibility of increasing holographic capacity and lifetime by coupling a photochromic spyropyan dye to a liquid crystalline polymer in which cholesteric order has been captured. Capture is being approached using a unique in-plane poling process with the helical polypeptide poly({alpha}-benzyl-L-glutamate), PBLG, a biopolymer which is capable of maintaining cholesteric order in a liquid crystalline state. Subsequent in situ crosslinking of this aligned biopolymer is projected to offer increased birefringence of the host in the writing of a hologram. Given that a key issue is the magnitude of the real component of the refractive index, increasing the birefringence may be a useful approach. In writing the hologram, the liquid crystals (LC's) go from isotropic to an ordered dispersion, a property which can be captured via crosslinking to improve holographic lifetime. In the following, the characterization of an aligned host LC system based on the biopolymer poly({alpha}-benzyl-L-glutamate), PBLG, is presented. In-plane alignment is shown to depend on a number of variables, most notably the choice of solvent, polymer molecular weight, and field strength. The results show that optimal alignment of the PBLG LC is achieved with a 2.5% (w/w) concentration of a 118kD biopolymer in methylene chloride in an applied field of 10 kV/cm. Subsequent work will exploit this system as a host for a spiropyran dye for improved holographics.
- Research Organization:
- Cambridge Scientific, Inc., Belmont, MA (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 20034115
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Electrical, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Organic Solid-State Materials IV, Boston, MA, (US), 12/01/1997--12/05/1997; Other Information: PBD: 1998; Related Information: In: Electrical, optical, and magnetic properties of organic solid-state materials IV. Materials Research Society, symposium proceedings Volume 488, by Reynolds, J.R.; Jen, A.K.Y.; Rubner, M.F.; Chiang, L.Y.; Dalton, L.R. [eds.], 977 pages.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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