Dr Pascal Lacroix

Molecular switches are interesting, because they provide the ultimate microscopic scale in the study of a single switch. Along this line, they attract huge potential interest from the perspective of molecular electronics. In nonlinear optics, a research area which should provide the materials of choice to the emerging technologies of photonics and electro-optics, incorporating switchability in NLO chromophores should extend the capability and range of application of molecular systems, which already have the potential to supplant the ferroelectric materials currently available.

2. What has motivated you to conduct this work? 

Several stimulating meetings with Professor Norberto Farfan from Mexico have been the main motivation for this investigation. He (and his enthusiastic group) is a specialist of boron chemistry, which offered the opportunity to design the chemical axis required for linking together the NLO chromophores. Indeed, it was the chemical feasibility of making the desired molecule by means of boron chemistry which encouraged us to initiate our research program and finally to conduct it successfully.

3. Where do you see this work developing in the future? 

Our goal is to investigate new possibilities for molecular materials, all of them related to the general concept of molecular switch or multi-property materials. This implies research in three steps, which requires: (i) a computational investigation of potential interplays between molecular properties, or between a molecular property and a suitable stimulus; (ii) the synthesis of molecular targets where the different component could be linked in some way; and finally (iii) the non ambiguous experimental determination of the predicted effect. This last step is certainly the most challenging, and also the most difficult. This is therefore where we should focus our research efforts.

4. Are there any particular challenges facing future research in this area? 

At the molecular scale, it is easy to modify and finally switch a property by means of chemical reaction (e.g. protonation, photochemical or acido-basic process). However, switching molecular properties in a bulk material (e.g. in a single crystal) would be a very challenging target.