Polymer based tuneable photonic crystals

• Published in: Physica status solidi. A, Applications and materials science Applications and materials science, 2007-11, Vol.204 (11), p.3739-3753
• Main Authors: Wülbern, J. H., Schmidt, M., Hübner, U., Boucher, R., Volksen, W., Lu, Y., Zentel, R., Eich, M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 42.65.−k; 42.70.Jk; 42.70.Qs; 42.79.Hp
• ISSN: 1862-6300; 0031-8965; 1862-6319
• DOI: 10.1002/pssa.200776420

We report on the fabrication and characterization of photonic crystal slab waveguide resonators which contain a nanostructured second‐order nonlinear optical polymer. The combination of a photonic crystal resonator realized in a second‐order nonlinear optical polymer allowed the detection of electro‐optical modulation of light with a sub‐1‐V sensitivity. Furthermore we report on the synthesis of novel nonlinear optical polymers with large second‐order hyperpolarizability and improved glass transition temperature. The polymer slab waveguide is micro patterned by means of electron‐beam lithography and reactive ion etching. The photonic crystal slab‐based resonator consisted of a square lattice of holes carrying a linear defect. Applying an external electric modulation voltage to electrodes leads to a linear electro‐optical shift of the resonance spectrum and thus to a modulation of the transmission at a fixed wavelength based on the electronic displacement polarization in a noncentrosymmetric medium (Pockels effect). (© 2007 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)