The cationic dye, E-N-alkyl-4-[2-(4-alkyloxynaphthyl) ethenyl] quinolinium bromide has a wide-bodied chromophore with alkyl groups at opposite ends, i. e. CmH2m+1-D-π-A+-CnH2n+1 X-, where D and A are electron-donor and electron-acceptor groups respectively, π is a conjugated bridge and X- is the bromide counterion. It forms non-centrosymmetric Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) structures in which the packing is dependent upon the combination and compatibility of the alkyl groups. Films of two isomeric analogues where m + n = 34, have a layer thickness of 4.3 nm when the groups are significantly different (m = 12 and n = 22) which decreases to 2.5 nm when they are similar (m = 18 and n = 16). The latter adopts an interdigitating layer arrangement at both the upper and lower interfaces and it is the first example of a Lego-type structure with non-centrosymmetric alignment of the optically nonlinear chromophores. This is evidenced by the second-harmonic intensity, which increases quadratically with the number of layers, i. e. as .

Recent technologies of organic film devices are reviewed. New technologies of fabrication and characterization of organic thin films, electro-mechanical conversion materials, and applications for electrical and optical devices are discussed. In this review paper, especially organic light emitting diodes, tunneling junctions using polyimide Langmuir-Blodgett films, tunneling spectroscopy and high-density recording, plastic actuators using conducting polymers, molecular self-assembly process for fabricating organic thin film devices are reviewed.

To investigate the effect of alkyl chain length and adsorption time on the charge-transfer complex formation, ultraviolet-visible absorption and inelastic electron tunneling (IET) spectroscopy measurements were carried out for the tetramethylphenylenediamine (TMPD; donor molecule) adsorbed dodecyl-, pentadecyl- and octadecyl-tetracyanoquinodimethane (TCNQ) Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films. In the optical absorption spectra, the main peak of LB films shows a red-shift depending on alkyl chain length and adsorption time. Furthermore, the dependence on alkyl chain length and adsorption time are also shown in the IET spectra. These results demonstrate that adsorption LB methods enable to control the adsorption ratio of functional molecules and the CT complex formation.

Control of electronic states of dye molecules (organic semiconductors) by introducing appropriate substituent groups has been examined. NH2 (electron-releasing group) and NO2 (electron-withdrawing group) were introduced in thiacarbocyanine dye to modify the electronic states of the dyes. The effect of modification was examined based on the properties of photoelectric cells made by the dye derivatives. Clear increase in photocurrent, more than ten times, was observed when modified dyes were used instead of the original dye. The result shows that the introduction of substituent groups for organic semiconductors is quite effective to control the electronic states, and the introduction can be regarded as doping in molecular level.