Organic and Hybrid Materials for Photonics and Electronics
Joe Perry Ph.D., School of Chemistry and Biochemistry
The Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract: In this talk, I will present an overview of my group’s research on materials for photonics and electronics.  Polymethine dyes are promising materials for nonlinear optical processes such as all-optical signal processing (AOSP) but efforts to utilize these dyes at high concentrations has been impeded by aggregation that has deleterious effects on the optical nonlinearity and optical absorption loss.  We are researching strategies to block polymethines from aggregating by substitution with rigid, bulky groups that project out of the plane polymethine. This approach has lead to high-number-density films with macroscopic nonlinear optical properties and high two-photon figures of merit close to those needed for AOSP.  The polymethines developed also exhibit a negative Re| X(3)| that is useful in the compensation of spectral broadening in optical fibers. 

Dielectric materials with high energy density and efficiency are critical for energy storage applications. Charge injection into the dielectric is undesirable as it leads to poor energy extraction efficiency. We have developed silica-organic hybrid sol-gel materials that exhibit high dielectric constant and breakdown strength through improvements in processing and the incorporation of nanoscale charge-blocking layers. Nanoscale charge blocking layers with layer thickness in the range of 100 nm to ~1 nm deposited between have been the dielectric film and the metal (Al) electrodes have led to large improvements in energy density and extraction efficiency. I will highlight our materials research efforts including: processing methods for sol-gel dielectrics, characterization of bilayer capacitors consisting of sol-gel and charge blocking layers. Our investigations provide insights into the development of high-performance dielectric materials/devices from organic/inorganic hybrid materials. 

Bio: Joseph W. Perry received his B.S in Chemistry at the University of South Florida and his Ph.D. at Caltech.  He has been a Professor of Chemistry in the School of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Georgia Institute of Technology for 12 years.  His research interests include electronic materials for energy storage including sol-gel based dielectrics with high energy/power density, nonlinear properties of conjugated molecules and polymers in nanophotonic structures for all-optical signal processing, and use of two-photon absorption processes for 3D micro- and nano- fabrication. Dr. Perry has received several awards and is a Fellow of OSA, APS, and AAAS. He has published over 240 scientific papers, and is an inventor on 13 issued patents.