The Effect Of External Electric Field And Substrate Surface On Molecular Anchoring To Increase The Refractive Index Of DR-1 Film

Abstract

The Disperse Red-1 (DR-1) molecule with its conjugated chain structure is known to offer great potential for photonic device applications, such as optical switching and optical data storage. For the aforementioned device applications, thin film of those molecules must be fabricated satisfying the requirements of having smooth and flat surface, uniform thickness and stable structure as well as attractive optical properties. As a result of this research, DR-1 films have been obtained which exhibit crystalline structure with the molecules deposited in parallel polar orientation perpendicular to the substrate and regular head to tail stacking when the electric field applied larger than 0.59 MV/m. This is understood to be result of the formation of strong hydrogen bonding acting as the anchoring mechanism. In addition, it is shown an increase in the optical refractive index as a result of an increase in the external electric field in the deposition process of the DR-1 films.