Description:

Organic molecules offer a great potential for electronic applications, especially with the hope of using self-assembly methods to "build" electronic devices from the ground up.  Organic molecules can be self-assembled into discs which stack on top of each other with a conductive center, forming a type of self-assembled molecular wire.

Above is a polarized light micrograph of stacked discs as observed when samples are cooled from their clearing temperatures. It is uniform over several hundred micrometers. The areas of extinction in the pattern are aligned along the polarizer/analyzer axes and are invariant with the sample’s rotation (spherulitic domains).  The pattern is not typical of a discotic liquid crystal and may indicate that the disc forms plastic or soft crystals.

 

Previous Day/Next Day

Please contact the webmaster if you would like to submit an image