The use of the Langmuir-Blodgett technique to obtain ultra-thin polar films

Abstract

The piezoelectric and pyroelectric properties of oriented films possessing dipole moments are increasingly being used in pressure, acoustic, thermal and optical devices. The performance of these devices in many applications may be enhanced by thin-film technology. The developing LangmuirBlodgett thin-film deposition technique offers the opportunity to obtain highly oriented and uniform organic-based films in the 10-5000 nm thickness range. Special techniques must be used, however, to assemble these molecules in such a way as to result in polar multilayer films. Several possible deposition techniques are investigated, with one resulting in a polar and pyroelectric film about 50 nm thick.

Lanthanide-Based Langmuir–Blodgett Multilayers: Multi-Emissive, Temperature-Dependent Thin Films

“…It allows for direct monitoring of film formation and can readily form layered materials from amphiphilic molecules, allowing for the rapid development of functional coatings [22][23][24]. Furthermore, this technique can be utilised to effortlessly form multi-emissive materials by layering different amphiphilic luminophores [25][26][27]. Recently, we reported an amphiphilic ligand 1 (Figure 1) and four visibly emissive lanthanide complexes Ln(1) 3 (where Ln 3+ = red emissive Eu 3+ , green emissive Tb 3+ , yellow and blue emissive Dy 3+, and orange emissive Sm 3+ ) and we demonstrated the ability to form multi-emissive monolayer LB films by mixing the lanthanides in solution [9].…”