Product/Research Description

The School has a multidisciplinary research team working on novel types of displays.

The work includes fluorescent dye doped polymer fibres and waveguide structures for novel types of backlight illumination devices which do not require external electric power thus providing a considerable saving in energy. A company, Freelight Systems Ltd is formed as a spin-off from the School to utilise the commercial potential of the novel type of display. Freelight Systems Ltd is the recipient of a Smart Award (Dec. 1999) from the Scottish Executive. The work on light emitting polymer technology was also awarded an EPSRC Grant (GR/NO5468) for a special application of throwing light on time tables, with a project value of �98,000. The work is also supported by Simpson Research Ltd.

The same team is involved in fabrication and characterisation of electroluminescent metal -polymer-metal light emitting diode devices. The main effort of the research is concentrated on developing new, highly effective fluorescent dye doped polymer composite materials with high quantum efficiency for generating red, green and blue electroluminescent light. The work is supported by Isocom Components Ltd and Simposon Research Ltd.

Another research project is concerned with preperation and characterisation of nematic and ferroelectric liquid crystal mixtures for wide temperature range electro-optical switching applications. The work is supported by Industrial Grants.

Another research project, in collaboration with the School of Life Sciences, Napier University, is the development of a low cost, portable biosender (Biomate), for environmental monitoring of toxicity of domestic and industrial water. The work is supported by DTI-Link Grant.

Skills & Facilities
The School has a variety of specialist electro-optical equipment, including a Nd-Yag laser, integrating sphere, fluorescent light spectroscopy and optical spectroscopy, and optical and electron microscopy together with X-ray microanalysis to study the structure and composition of novel electro-optical materials. The school also has computer controlled vacuum deposition systems, spin-coaters and photolithography, for producing patterned thin films, housed in a Class-100 Clean Room.

The School also has extensive polymer processing and characterisation facilities for applications in optical and/or electro-optical displays, including polymeric light fibres, wave guides, conducting polymers and non-linear polymers.