Abstract

Polymers of aromatic heterocycles such as thiophene and pyrrole have been actively investigated for their promising electrical and optical characteristics. However the use of these materials in waveguide structures has been constrained by morphological and synthetic barriers. Specifically, larger oligomers are less soluble causing multiphase chemical kinetics and irregular morphology in the metal-catalyzed coupling syntheses.fi] Electrochemical preparation methods also produce grainy or fibrillar material, most probably because the heterogeneous boundary conditions on film growth change as insulating or semi-conducting material is deposited on the electrodes. [2] We report here a synthetic approach to the polymeric heterocycle polythiophene using electronically excited argon metastables to activate organic precursors. This method is seen to produce dense, uniform films with desirable thiophene linkages and excellent optical properties.

© 1991 Optical Society of America