SBIR Phase II: A New Class of Complex Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Mesogens for Advanced Electro-Optic Devices

这项小型企业创新研究（SBIR）二期项目旨在开发新型二聚体铁电液晶（FLCs），以开发一种新的电光学（EO）和非线性光学（NLO）材料，提供以前无法获得的性能。这将使先进的光电产品跨越多个市场，从用于投影电视的激光器到用于光互连和电信的100GHz集成电光调制器和开关。100多年来，主要的液晶分子一直是简单棒状的变体。这项创新利用了新的二聚体——一对并排的传统棒状FLC分子，通过π共轭桥连接，成为强NLO发色团的一部分。使用铌酸锂（当今主要的NLO材料）制造集成光电器件是困难和昂贵的。有机极性聚合物NLO材料在集成方面具有显著的优势，但由于热力学不稳定和非中心对称（要求具有NLO活性），其性能和稳定性受到限制。FLCs本质上是非中心对称的，热力学稳定，为创建高密度的强定向NLO发色团提供了理想的支架。我们第二阶段的目标是开发和演示投影电视激光光源和电光调制的原型材料，并设计将用于投影电视激光器的产品。在商业上，SBIR二期项目将推进对一类新型二聚体铁电液晶的科学和技术理解，并将生产出第一个具有商业意义的液晶，而不是基于简单的棒状分子。消费类产品将包括更高画质、更低成本的背投电视，以及用于便携式电子产品的实用、明亮的微型投影仪。由NLO材料实现的集成电光设备将有助于扩大计算机和电信网络的带宽，以及未来几代更快的计算机的互连。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project aims to exploit novel dimer ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) to develop a new class of materials for electro-optics (EO) and non-linear optics (NLO) that offer previously unobtainable properties. This will enable advanced optoelectronic products across multiple markets, from lasers for projection television to 100GHz integrated electro-optic modulators and switches for optical interconnects and telecommunications. For over 100 years, predominant liquid crystal molecules have been variants on simple rod shapes. This innovation exploits new dimers - a side-by-side pair of conventional rod-shaped FLC molecules connected by a pi-conjugated bridge engineered to be part of a strong NLO chromophore. It is difficult and expensive to build integrated optoelectronic devices using lithium niobate, today's dominant NLO material. Organic poled-polymer NLO materials offer significant advantages for integration, but suffer performance and stability limitations due to being thermodynamically unstable and non-centrosymmetric (required to be NLO active). FLCs are intrinsically non-centrosymmetric and thermodynamically stable, offering an ideal scaffolding for creating high densities of strong, oriented, NLO chromophores. Our Phase II objectives are to develop and demonstrate prototype materials for projection television laser light sources and electro-optic modulation, and to design a product that will be used in projection television lasers.Commercially, this SBIR Phase II project will advance the scientific and technological understanding of a new class of dimer ferroelectric liquid crystals, and will produce the first commercially significant liquid crystals not based on simple rod-shaped molecules. Consumer products will include higher image quality, lower cost, rear projection televisions and practical, bright, micro-projectors for portable electronics. Integrated electro-optic devices enabled by the NLO materials will help to expand the bandwidth of computer and telecommunication networks, and of interconnects within coming generations of faster computers.