We report measurements of photoluminescence from films of a soluble phenylenevinylene polymer that has prospective importance as the emissive material in light-emitting diodes. We show unambiguously that there is long-lived emission in this material due to excimers and estimate that the quantum yield for excimer formation is as high as 50%. Since excimers in this polymer largely decay nonradiatively at ambient temperature, their prominence serves to drastically reduce the possible efficiency of electroluminescent conjugated polymer devices.

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Stimulated emission is demonstrated by optically pumping chromophores within the liquid‐crystal domains of 1D bandgap structures that are derived from holographic polymer‐dispersed liquid‐crystal (H‐PDLC) gratings (see Figure). Electrically switchable laser resonance is also possible using the H‐PDLC, since applying an electric field across the grating aligns the directors of the liquid crystal, diminishing the refractive index profile and, consequently, the lasing action.

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Electrically switched distributed-feedback (DFB) lasing action is presented in a Pyrromethene 580 lasing dye-doped holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystal (H-PDLC) transmission grating structure. This design, when compared with the previously utilized H-PDLC reflection grating structure, has the advantage of a greatly enlarged gain length (10 mm) and a low concentration of liquid crystal (20%) while maintaining sufficient refractive index modulation. The experimental results demonstrate that the emitted laser bandwidth (~5 nm) can be obtained with a pump energy threshold of ~0.3 mJ at three different wavelengths, 561 nm, 569 nm and 592 nm, corresponding to three different grating spacings. The near- and far-field measurements have shown a high directionality of the lasing output. The lasing can be electrically switched off by an applied field of 30V/mum. The temporal, spectral, and output/input properties of the laser output are also presented.

A novel method for the facile fabrication of conformal, ultrathin, and uniform synthetic amino acid coatings on a variety of practical surfaces by plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition is introduced. Tyrosine, which is utilized as an agent to reduce gold nanoparticles from solution, is sublimed into the plasma field and directly deposited on a variety of substrates to form a homogeneous, conformal, and robust polyamino acid coating in a one-step, solvent-free process. This approach is applicable to many practical surfaces and allows surface-induced biometallization while avoiding multiple wet-chemistry treatments that can damage many soft materials. Moreover, by placing a mask over the substrate during deposition, the tyrosine coating can be micropatterned. Upon its exposure to a solution of gold chloride, a network of gold nanoparticles forms on the surface, replicating the initial micropattern. This method of templated biometallization is adaptable to a variety of practical inorganic and organic substrates, such as silicon, glass, nitrocellulose, polystyrene, polydimethylsiloxane, polytetrafluoroethylene, polyethylene, and woven silk fibers. No special pretreatment is necessary, and the technique results in a rapid, conformal amino acid coating that can be utilized for further biometallization.