IDCC, the "smart researchers" failed in their approach because they were using a fragile molecule second generation e/o materials from LMRA/GIG, plain and simple
Paradox of Electro-Optics
Certain materials are made of robust molecules and their electrons are so strongly bound in the molecular structure that it is difficult for them to vibrate or breakaway. Such materials may be robust but generally their electrons do not vibrate easily. By analogy, a beer -mug may be thick -walled but it would be much more difficult for our soprano to vibrate it with his or her voice. This has been the dilemma of electro -optics. Creating a molecule in which an electron can oscillate freely back and forth when hit by light but which does not wildly vibrate the material toward its own resonant destruction.
Second-generation electro-optics are fragile like champagne flutes It was a daunting challenge. Scientists had been working on the problem since the 1960's and by the late -90's most everyone had deemed the task impossible, just as it is infeasible to merge the delicate vibration character of a champagne flute with a Hamburg beer stein.
Second-Generation
Second-generation electro-optic polymers are excellent high -
performance electron oscillators. Their long fluted shape however makes them highly unstable and unreliable. Most scientists had been trying to make more slender and delicate "molecular flutes" that would vibrate easily, blindly hoping that they would somehow, someday figure out how to stabilize these molecu lar structures. This thin and delicate class of molecules has become known as second - generation electro-optic materials.
Third-Generation
Meanwhile, the scientists at LWLG continued quietly and
indefatigably toward the Holy Grail, the Fluted Stein. A molecule that was robust and yet which would vibrate more easily than the thinnest sliver of crystal. Once thought impossible, LWLG succeeded on their quest, producing today's third -generation of electro-optic molecules. LWLG scientists accomplished this by stabilizing the core of the molecule with interlocking atomic rings, much like crosshatches or the rungs of a ladder.
Third-generation electro-optic materials are even higher performing as electron oscillators. Their ring-locked shape gives them tremendous stability. Within these structures the electrons still vibrate easily, in fact they oscillate significantly better than within second -generation materials, yet they are incredibly robust due to their reinforced scaffold -like structure.
Role of polymers will accelerate quickly (slide 53)
