SBIR Phase I:A Low Cost Scalable Approach to Improved Electro-optic Materials Performance using a New Functionalized Polymer Host with a Wide Range of Commercially Available Chromo

小企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目描述了一种新的方法来解决创造高性能电光（EO）聚合物材料的问题，这种材料的成本大大低于目前非常昂贵的多步骤合成。所提出的技术还提供了获得更高的最佳负载的能力，这将提高性能。更高的发色团效率和更高的负载水平有可能消除对昂贵的高性能发色团的需求，并且首次允许使用简单的发色团获得高EO系数。具体的技术目标包括：(1)选择10个最适合新功能化聚合物技术的最有前途的发色团(2)测量和优化这些发色团/聚合物复合材料带隙的红移；(3)利用得到的r33值、开关速度、插入损耗、热稳定性和发色团弛豫率对优化后的EO材料进行极点和表征，以提高其商业应用价值。改进的电光设备大大扩展了电信带宽，将产生重大的社会和商业影响。例如，更高的数据传输将有利于远程医疗、虚拟教室、更高级别的安全系统以及实时个人和商业数据访问等应用。提出的活动将通过对前所未有的红移的研究，提高全球对电光聚合物的科学知识。对这种不寻常效应的进一步研究应该会导致新的装置发明。

The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project describes a new approach to solving the problem of creating higher performing Electro-Optic (EO) polymer materials which have significantly lower cost than the current very expensive multi-step synthesis. The proposed technology also offers the ability to obtain much higher optimal loading, which will improve performance. The greater chromophore effectiveness and higher loading levels potentially eliminate the need for expensive high performance chromophores and for the first time can allow the use of simple chromophores to obtain high EO coefficients. The specific technical objectives in the proposed work include: (1) down-select 10 most promising chromophores best suited to the new functionalized polymer technology (2) measure and optimize the red shift of the bandgap of these chromophore/polymer composites; and (3) pole and characterize the optimized EO materials using the r33 value obtained, switching speed, insertion loss, thermal stability, and relaxation rate of the chromophores to improve the commercial application value.Significant societal and commercial impact will emerge from improved electro-optic devices having greatly expanded bandwidth for telecommunications. For example, higher data transfer will benefit applications such as telemedicine, virtual classrooms, higher-level security systems, and real time personal and commercial data access. The proposed activities will enhance global scientific knowledge in electro-optic polymers through investigation of the unprecedented red shift. Further investigation of this unusual effect should lead to new device inventions.