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Projects: Supported by National Science Foundation
under the Materials World Network PI: Prof.
Christoph
Weder
co-PI: Prof. Kenneth Singer Collaborators: Dr. Martin Steinhart, Max Planck Institute of Microstructure Physics Dr. Ralf Wehrspohn, Fraunhofer-Institut für Werkstoffmechanik Halle Prof. Kurt
Busch, University of Karlsruhe
ABSTRACT: Fueled by much academic curiosity and the demand for inexpensive and versatile integrated high-speed optic devices, photonic crystals (PC) are the subject of intense research activities around the world. Of particular attraction is the possibility to create materials and devices which display complete photonic band gaps, i.e., frequency regimes in which no radiation of the respective frequency can propagate. PCs promise to be useful in many (integrated and miniaturized) optical elements, including waveguides and interconnects, switches, interferometers, filters, laser structures and many others. The here-proposed experimental research program sets out to design, prepare and study such PCs with a dynamic or nonlinear band gap. While the linear optical properties of PCs have received considerable attention, their nonlinear optical (NLO) response is not nearly as well understood. The program aims to create and study hybrid materials based on inorganic PCs - such as macroporous silicon and titania - and organic third-order NLO materials, which will be consciously designed. The following problems will be addressed: (i) the design, fabrication and characterization of ordered porous substrates and devices that form the basis for PCs with dynamic band gaps; (ii) the synthesis of tailor-made low-molecular weight and polymeric organic NLO chromophores, which exhibit large optical nonlinearities and appropriate physico-chemical properties to wet and fill the porous substrates; (iii) the study of the infiltration mechanisms along with the investigation of the formation of mesophases inside the pores; (iv) the optical characterization of the bulk properties of the NLO materials and devices based on inorganic/organic photonic hybrid systems. |
