Interfacial Morphology of Polymer Thin Films for Computer Memory Applications

该项目涉及分散在非晶态聚合物中的液晶的处理，可用于可逆的光学数据存储。其工作原理是基于相分离和玻璃化的竞争过程。这种液晶掺杂的聚合物混合物被旋涂在衬底上形成薄膜，其界面形态强烈地受到其瞬时热历史的控制。进行了建模和实验研究，以加深对该程序的理解。目前用于计算机行业的薄膜主要是无机的。过渡金属/稀土合金易腐蚀，真空沉积工艺昂贵。本项目所开发的有机基材具有旋涂成型简单、长期稳定性好等优点。液晶在非晶态基质中的使用利用了液晶的强烈自组装倾向，以及刚性、非晶态基质在玻璃化过程中捕捉到的瞬时形态。薄膜界面形态的细微差别可能会导致大的、容易辨别的光散射图案，从而产生高信噪比。此外，迄今为止在这种新型聚合物液晶系统上进行的初步工作表明，可以实现快速的数据记录和擦除。

This project involves the processing of liquid crystals dispersed in amorphous polymers that can be used for reversible optical data storage. The working principle is based on the competitive processes of phase separation and vitrification. Such liquid crystal doped polymer mixtures are spin-coated on substrates to form thin films, whose interfacial morphology is strongly controlled by their transient thermal histories. Both modeling and experimental studies are carried out to establish a firm understanding of this program. Current thin films used in the computer industry are primarily inorganic in nature. Transition metal/rare earth alloys suffer from ease of corrosion and expensive vacuum deposition processes. The organic based material being developed in this project enjoys the advantage of formation by simple spin coating and long-term stability. The use of liquid crystals in amorphous matrices exploits the strong tendency of the liquid crystals to self- assemble and the rigid, amorphous matrices to trap the transient morphology upon vitrification. Subtle differences in the thin film interfacial morphology can lead to large, easily discernible light scattering patterns, yielding high signal-to-noise ratios. In addition, the preliminary work performed to date on this novel liquid-crystal-in-polymer system indicates that fast data recording and erasure can be achieved.