Thin films under chemical stress

Abstract

The goal of work on this project has been develop a set of experimental tools to allow investigators interested in transport, binding, and segregation phenomena in composite thin film structures to study these phenomena in situ. Work to-date has focuses on combining novel spatially-directed optical excitation phenomena, e.g. waveguide eigenmodes in thin dielectric slabs, surface plasmon excitations at metal-dielectric interfaces, with standard spectroscopies to understand dynamic processes in thin films and at interfaces. There have been two main scientific thrusts in the work and an additional technical project. In one thrust we have sought to develop experimental tools which will allow us to understand the chemical and physical changes which take place when thin polymer films are placed under chemical stress. In principle this stress may occur because the film is being swelled by a penetrant entrained in solvent, because interfacial reactions are occurring at one or more boundaries within the film structure, or because some component of the film is responding to an external stimulus (e.g. pH, temperature, electric field, or radiation). However all work to-date has focused on obtaining a clearer understanding penetrant transport phenomena. The other thrust has addressed the kinetics of adsorption of model n-alkanoic acids from organic solvents. Both of these thrusts are important within the context of our long-term goal of understanding the behavior of composite structures, composed of thin organic polymer films interspersed with Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) and self-assembled monolayers. In addition there has been a good deal of work to develop the local technical capability to fabricate grating couplers for optical waveguide excitation. This work, which is subsidiary to the main scientific goals of the project, has been successfully completed and will be detailed as well. 41 refs., 10 figs.