Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 February 2011
Extensively conjugated polymer films with excellent morphology, homogeneity, robustness, and nonlinear optical coefficients have been synthesized in the flowing afterglow of a lowpressure argon plasma. Polymers of benzene, thiophene, furan, and napthalene are among the systems studied. The polymers, which grow by accretion of positive ions through a low-voltage sheath, have bulk and surface textures which scale systematically with film thickness. The hopes and perils of employing these new materials as active elements in gradient-index reflectors and optical switches will be described, as will the link between morphology and deposition mechanism.
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