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2007
Conference Paper
Titel
Titanium oxo-clusters as nanobuilding blocks for microsystems technology
Abstract
The demand for integrated optical devices has attained a key position in the expansion of communication networks. The increasing need for higher data rates could be overcome by a continuous decrease in structural dimensions in electronic, optical, or optoelectronic devices. Thus, multifunctional materials are needed which allow the production of highly sophisticated micro- and nano-systems by simple processing technologies. A possible way of tuning the material properties such as, the refractive index, is the addition of hybrid nanobuilding blocks (NBBs) in form of metal oxo-clusters into an inorganic-organic hybrid host material (ORMOCER (R)). Organically modified metal oxide clusters can be obtained by a reaction of metal alkoxides with carboxylic acids. Benzoic acid functionalized titanium oxo-alkoxo-clusters such as Ti6O4(C6H5COO)(8)(OR)(8) (R=Et, Pr-n, Bu-n) have been achieved with a very good yield (up to 89%). Dispersion of these clusters in ORMOCER (R) matrices leads to a homogeneous, photo-patternable hybrid system with tailored properties. The refractive index of the host ORMOCER (R) matrix could be increased from 1.552 to 1.575 at 635 nm by the addition of these titanium clusters (ca. 2.2 mol%.). The novel hybrid materials including NBBs can have similar flexibility in processing than the host matrices, offering a broad variety of applications in microsystems technology.