Advanced Organic Optoelectronic Materials and Devices

光的重要性怎么强调都不为过：它让我们看到周围世界的美丽，并为我们的星球提供支持所有生命的能量。它在我们的日常生活中被以无数种方式使用--在计算机屏幕或电视上显示信息，读写光盘，以及沿着光纤传输电话和互联网数据。光电子学涉及利用光和电相结合的材料和器件的研究。这项应用的目的是开发新一代光电材料和器件。目前，大多数光电材料都是刚性、脆性的无机材料。这项提议将把重点放在类似塑料的有机材料上，这种材料可以很容易地通过简单的方式溶解和沉积，例如通过喷墨打印，以制造晶体管、发光二极管和激光。随着商业产品的问世和平板柔性屏幕的临近，这些显示应用材料的开发已经取得了显著的进展。这些显示器的发展导致了材料和我们对它们的理解的重大改进，因此现在有许多新的机会和应用领域。作为一名高级研究员，我将从繁重的教学和行政负担中解脱出来，去追求这些最令人兴奋的机会。我将承担的工作可以分为三个主要领域。第一个是先进材料，将涉及被称为树枝状大分子的雪花形状分子的开发。这些材料在显示应用方面非常成功，现在在太阳能电池、数码相机、激光和光学放大器方面具有巨大的应用潜力。第二个主要研究领域涉及使用有机材料开发先进的激光器和光学放大器，以及探索使用这些设备允许一个光脉冲切换另一个光脉冲。这些设备可以用于通信系统，并与塑料光纤兼容。我计划探索的最后一个主要领域是材料的医学应用。特别是，光被用于治疗包括皮肤癌在内的大量疾病，皮肤癌是最常见的癌症。我将与邓迪的尼尼韦尔斯医院的光生物学研究所合作，探索使用有机半导体来提供一种新的、更方便的治疗皮肤癌的方法。

The importance of light cannot be overstated: it allows us to see the beauty of the world around us, and supplies the energy to our planet that supports all life. It is used in countless ways in our everyday lives - to display information on computer screens or televisions, to read and write compact discs, and to carry telephone calls and internet data along optical fibres. Optoelectronics involves the study of materials and devices using light in combination with electricity. The purpose of this application is to develop a new generation of optoelectronic materials and devices. Currently most optoelectronic materials are rigid, brittle inorganic materials. This proposal will instead focus on plastic-like organic materials which can be readily dissolved and deposited in simple ways, such as by ink jet printing, to make transistors, light-emitting diodes and lasers. Remarkable progress has been made in developing these materials for display applications with commercial products available, and flat flexible screens very close.The development of these displays has led to major improvements in materials and our understanding of them, so that there are now many new opportunities and application areas. As a senior fellow I would be freed from a heavy teaching and administration load to pursue the most exciting of these opportunities. The work I would undertake can be divided into three main areas. The first is advanced materials, and will involve the development of snowflake shaped molecules called dendrimers. These materials have been extremely successful for display applications, and now have great potential for applications in solar cells, digital cameras, lasers and optical amplifiers. The second major area of research involves the development of advanced lasers and optical amplifiers using organic materials, and exploration of using these devices to allow one light pulse to switch another. These devices could be used in communication systems and would be compatible with plastic optical fibre. The last major area I plan to explore is medical applications of the materials. In particular light is used in the treatment of a large number of diseases including skin cancer, which is the most common cancer. In collaboration with the Photobiology Unit at Ninewells Hospital in Dundee, I will explore using organic semiconductors to give a new and much more convenient way of treating skin cancer.