Tunable reflectance by doped conjugated polymers

The future demands on the Defence Forces are, among others, a greater flexibility to function in widely different and unforeseen environments. Moreover there must be a readiness to approach new sensor threats in wavelength bands, where efficient signature management is lacking at present. These two aspects are of concern to the project "Adaptable Signature Materials", with the keywords tunability and multispectrality. In recent years, conjugated polymers have become increasingly interesting, from a varied point of view. The potential ability of tuning electrical and optical properties is of highest interest. Application examples are resistive sheets and flexible/soft displays. Concerning resistive sheets in different kinds of radar absorbers for military use, the polymer can be applied onto different types of carrier material as textiles and plastic foil. Concerning flexible/soft displays, the polymer can either be a part of the bearing structure in order to make it flexable and/or it can be used as an active electro-optical material. This is a very active research field with many different civilian applications. There are hardly any reports on tunability of conjugated polymers within the IR-region. This report aims at a greater knowledge of the world of conjugated polymers, seen from the perspective of different wavelengths, from the visual, IR, to microwaves.