This treatise is a compendium of papers based on invited talks presented at the American Chemical Society Symposium on Electroactive Polymers which covered nonlinear optical polymers and conducting polymers, the common denominator being the correlated pi-electron structures. The improved understanding of the consequences of pi-electron delocalization upon nonlinear optical properties and charge carrier dynamics has laid the foundation for the rapid development and application of the electroresponse of conjugated polymers. As a result, the area of electroactive and nonlinear optical polymers is emerging as a frontier of sCience and technology. It is a multidisciplinary field that is bringing together scientists and engineers of varied background to interface their expertise. The recent explosion of interest in this area stems from the prospect of utilizing nonlinear optical effects for optical switching and logic operations in optical computing, optical signal processing, optical sensing and optical fiber communications. Polymers and organic are rapidly becoming one of the major material classes for nonlinear optical applications along with multiple quantum wells, ferroelectrics and other oxides, and direct band-gap semiconductors. The reasons for this lie in the unique molecular structures of polymers and organics and the ability to molecularly engineer the architecture of these structures through chemical synthesis.

The principal focus of the project is to research and develop new polymeric materials based on molecular level design and solid state chemistry. The goals have been to develop electroactive polymers with novel electronic, optical and nonlinear optical properties.

Electroactive polymers have been the object of increasing academic and industrial interest and in the past ten to fifteen years substantial progress has been achieved in the development and the characterization of this important new class of conducting materials. These materials are usually classified in two large groups, according to the mode of their electric transport. One group includes polymers having transport almost exclusively of the ionic type and they are often called 'polymer electrolytes' or, in a broader way, 'polymer ionics'. The other group includes polymeric materials where the transport mechanism is mainly electronic in nature and which are commonly termed 'conducting polymers'. Ionically conducting polymers or polymer ionics may be typically described as polar macromolecular solids in which one or more of a wide range of salts has been dissolved. The most classic example is the combina tion of poly(ethylene oxide), PEO, and lithium salts, LiX. These PEO-LiX polymer ionics were first described and proposed for applications just over ten years ago. The practical relevance of these new materials was im mediately recognized and in the course of a few years the field expanded tremendously with the involvement of many academic and industrial lab oratories. Following this diversified research activity, the ionic transport mechanism in polymer ionics was soon established and this has led to the development of new host polymers of various types, new salts and advanced polymer architectures which have enabled room temperature conductivity to be raised by several orders of magnitude.

The most recent advances in the use of polymeric materials by the electronic industry can be found in Polymers for Electronic and Photonic Applications. This bookprovides in-depth coverage of photoresis for micro-lithography, microelectronic encapsulants and packaging, insulators, dielectrics for multichip packaging,electronic and photonic applications of polymeric materials, among many other topics. Intended for engineers and scientists who design, process, and manufacturemicroelectronic components, this book will also prove useful for hybrid and systems packaging managers who want to be informed of the very latest developments inthis field. * Presents most recent advances in the use of polymeric materials by the electronic industry* Contributions by foremost experts in the field