MRI: Development of a System for Thin Film Deposition of Highly Ordered Organic Materials.

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Technical abstractThis project is to develop a unique system for microlithography of organic materials from solution using a direct-write process. The instrument will be capable of depositing a variety of materials, including organic semiconductors, functionalized proteins, and polymeric materials. The work will build on a recent discovery that by directing the crystallization of thin film materials laterally across the surface of a substrate, crystalline domain sizes larger than one millimeter can be obtained for a variety of organic semiconductor materials. The large grain sizes represent a several order-of-magnitude improvement over commonly used techniques. Single crystal films have much lower defect densities than polycrystalline films, and exhibit improved electronic and mechanical properties. Thus, the goal of several research projects that will use this new instrument will be to correlate structural ordering of new materials with electrical, optical, and mechanical properties. The materials to be studied initially have applications in the areas of organic electronics, organic photovoltaics, synthetic collagen, and biocompatible materials that could be used for stents. The capability to easily fabricate highly ordered thin films of new materials will enable rapid progress in both fundamental studies of materials and the development of new materials for applications in the areas mentioned above.Non-technical abstractThis project is to develop a system that implements a new inexpensive method for writing patterns of carbon-based soft materials with a high degree of alignment of the molecules making up the material. The ordering arrangement of molecules has a large influence on the properties of the materials and hence the suitability for practical applications. The new instrument will allow research on how certain types of molecular ordering influence properties of materials that might make them suitable for forming electronic switches, or to generate electricity from light. The instrument will produce a much higher degree of ordering than conventional methods, and will therefore assist in the development of materials for bright inexpensive displays, as well as for highly efficient carbon-based solar cells as a source of electricity. Other materials that will be investigated have applications as synthetic strands of the material that give skin its elastic properties, and as bio-compatible materials that can be used for hold blocked arteries open to allow blood to flow freely. The crucial capability to easily fabricate highly ordered thin films of a broad range of materials will enable rapid progress in both fundamental studies and advanced applications in the areas mentioned above.