Additive Manufacturing with Sol-Gel

Abstract

In this project we extended our activity for developing routes for doping functional materials in Sol-Gel matrices. We focused on studying doping of derivatives of an asymmetric Fluorene chromophore, Diphenylamine-Fluorene-Benzothiazole (called AF240). This dye is sensitive to the environment and has significant two forms "green" and "orange", which differ from each other in UV-Vis absorption spectrum and luminescence spectrum, and also in nonlinear optical properties. The "green" form exhibits absorption below 450 nm and luminescence spectrum centered at ~470 nm. This form is stable in non-polar environments resulting in a non-protonated chromophore form. The "orange" form exhibits presence of an additional absorption band centered at 480 nm that extends past 550 nm. The luminescence spectrum of the "orange" form is significantly "red-shifted" and centered at 600 nm. This form is stable in polar environments resulting in a protonated chromophore form. We succeeded to develop a route to dope AF240 derivatives and stabilize them in the two forms. The "orange" form was stabilized in the Sol-Gel matrix when the chromophore was added to the Sol-Gel precursor's solution prior to hydrolysis of the sol. In contrast, the "green" form was stabilized in the Sol-Gel matrix when the chromophore was added to the sol solution after hydrolysis, but before gelation. This research was conducted partially at AFRL and partially at Soreq. The chromophores were supplied by AFRL group. The glassy solid Sol-Gel samples doped with the AF240 chromophore derivatives were prepared at Soreq and preliminary spectral characterization was done. More extensive linear and nonlinear optical spectral characterizations were done at AFRL on the samples sent by Soreq group. In addition, we succeeded to demonstrate fabrication of micro-scale Sol-Gel glassy optical devices using 3D-direct laser writing (DLW) with a 2-photon polymerization (2PP) process.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 13, 2023
Accession Number
AD1226912

Entities

People

  • Ayelet Teitelboim
  • Galit Bar
  • Lauren M. Loftus
  • Loon-Seng Tan
  • Moran Ben-nun
  • Ramamurthi Kannan
  • Raz Gvishi
  • Tod A Grusenmeyer
  • Zhenning Yu

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory
  • Azimuth Corporation
  • Soreq Nuclear Research Center
  • Universal Energy Systems

Tags

Readers

  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Polymer Science and Technology

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Directed Energy - Lasers