Nanophotonic Filters and Integrated Networks in Flexible 2D Polymer Photonic Crystals

• Main Authors: Gan, Xuetao (Author), Clevenson, Hannah A. (Contributor), Tsai, Cheng-Chia (Author), Li, Luozhou (Author), Englund, Dirk Robert (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Nature Publishing Group, 2014-05-14T19:25:00Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

Polymers have appealing optical, biochemical, and mechanical qualities, including broadband transparency, ease of functionalization, and biocompatibility. However, their low refractive indices have precluded wavelength-scale optical confinement and nanophotonic applications in polymers. Here, we introduce a suspended polymer photonic crystal (SPPC) architecture that enables the implementation of nanophotonic structures typically limited to high-index materials. Using the SPPC platform, we demonstrate nanophotonic band-edge filters, waveguides, and nanocavities featuring quality (Q) factors exceeding 2, 300 and mode volumes (Vmode) below 1.7(λ/n)3. The unprecedentedly high Q/Vmode ratio results in a spectrally selective enhancement of radiative transitions of embedded emitters via the cavity Purcell effect with an enhancement factor exceeding 100. Moreover, the SPPC architecture allows straightforward integration of nanophotonic networks, shown here by a waveguide-coupled cavity drop filter with sub-nanometer spectral resolution. The nanoscale optical confinement in polymer promises new applications ranging from optical communications to organic opto-electronics, and nanophotonic polymer sensors.
National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (2012CB921900)
United States. Dept. of Energy (Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Contract No. DE-AC02-98CH10886)
National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Award No. IIP-1152707)
United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (PECASE, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers)
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Space Technology Research Fellowship)