We present the design and fabrication of a phenanthrenequinone-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) photopolymer material. Large blocks of samples were made, and the material showed negligible shrinkage after optical exposures. We recorded and reconstructed 250 holograms at a single spot, using a 1-cm(3) block.

The photoproducts in phenanthrenequinone (PQ)-dissolved methyl methacrylate (MMA) liquid samples and PQ-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PQ/PMMA) solid photopolymer samples have been analyzed by various chemical measurements. A mechanism for holographic recording in our PQ/PMMA photopolymer is proposed. By UV-VIS transmission and photoluminescence spectral measurements, we find that under light exposure the molecular structure of PQ is transformed to be less conjugated. The measured results of mass spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectra, NMR spectra, and gel permeation chromatograph analyses provide some evidence for recognizing the molecular structure of the photoproducts in our PQ/PMMA photopolymers. The results show that under light exposure the PQ and MMA form new molecules, mainly an adduct of one PQ molecule with one MMA molecule. In addition, PQ also reacts as a photoinitiator to form PMMA oligomers in our samples. The structure change of the PQ molecule induces a strong change of the refractive index in the material. It provides a mechanism to record a phase hologram in our PQ/PMMA photopolymer. Holographic recordings in the samples are demonstrated, and the dynamic range of the sample is investigated.

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Fluorescence blinking is commonly observed in single molecule/particle spectroscopy, but it is an undesirable feature in many applications. We demonstrated that single CdSe/ZnS quantum dots in agarose gel exhibited suppressed blinking behavior. In addition, the long-time exponential bending tail of the power-law blinking statistics was found to be influenced by agarose gel concentration. We suggest that electron transfer from the light state to the dark state might be blocked due to electrostatic surrounding of gel with inherent negatively charged fibers.

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The integration of high uniformity, conformal and compact transparent conductive layers into next generation indium tin oxide (ITO)-free optoelectronics, including wearable and bendable structures, is a huge challenge. In this study, we demonstrate the transparent and conductive functionality of aluminum-doped zinc oxide (AZO) thin films deposited on glass as well as on polyethylene terephthalate (PET) flexible substrates by using an atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. AZO thin films possess high optical transmittance at visible and near-infrared spectral range and electrical properties competitive to commercial ITO layers. AZO layers deposited on flexible PET substrates demonstrate stable sheet resistance over 1000 bending cycles. Based on the performed optical and electrical characterizations, several applications of ALD AZO as transparent conductive layers are shown—AZO/glass-supported liquid crystal (LC) display and AZO/PET-based flexible polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) devices.