Chemical vapor deposition of conjugated polymeric thin films for photonic and electronic applications

(cont.) Conjugated polymers have delocalized electrons along the backbone, facilitating electrical conductivity. As thin films, they are integral to organic semiconductor devices emerging in the marketplace, such as flexible displays and plastic solar cells, as well as next-generation microphotonic chips. A major processing challenge is that these materials are relatively insoluble. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is presented as a synthesis technique for conjugated polymers as an alternative to electrochemical and liquid dispersion methods. CVD will continue to be an essential component of the materials toolset for manufacturers of semiconductor devices. Polysilanes, with a backbone consisting of silicon atoms instead of carbon, have delocalized electrons due to the presence of d-orbitals. Plasma-enhanced CVD (PECVD) of polysilane films was achieved, but they did not exhibit electrical conductivity. Branching resulting from the energetic plasma process quenches the conjugation. However, photo oxidation was used to convert Si-Si bonds into Si-O-Si, reducing the refractive index up to 5%. This led to the direct patterning of tunable waveguides in PECVD hexamethyldisilane (6M2S).

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Chemical Engineering

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Lock, John P

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Karen K. Gleason.

• Chemical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33714

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33714