Photonic technologies are nowadays dominated by highly performing inorganic structures that are commonly fabricated via lithography or epitaxial growths. Unfortunately, the fabrication of these systems is costly, time consuming, and does not allow for the growth of large photonic structures. All-polymer photonic crystals could overcome this limitation thanks to easy solubility and melt processing. On the other hand, macromolecules often do not offer a dielectric contrast large enough to approach the performances of their inorganic counterparts. In this work, we demonstrate a new approach to achieve high dielectric contrast distributed Bragg reflectors with a photonic band gap that is tunable in a very broad spectral region. A highly transparent medium was developed through a blend of a commercial polymer with a high refractive index inverse vulcanized polymer that is rich in sulfur, where the large polarizability of the S-S bond provides refractive index values that are unconceivable with common non-conjugated polymers. This approach paves the way to the recycling of sulfur byproducts for new high added-value nano-structures.

Tavella, C., Lova, P., Marsotto, M., Luciano, G., Patrini, M., Stagnaro, P., et al. (2020). High Refractive Index Inverse Vulcanized Polymers for Organic Photonic Crystals. CRYSTALS, 10(3) [10.3390/cryst10030154].

High Refractive Index Inverse Vulcanized Polymers for Organic Photonic Crystals

Marsotto, Martina;
2020-01-01

Abstract

Photonic technologies are nowadays dominated by highly performing inorganic structures that are commonly fabricated via lithography or epitaxial growths. Unfortunately, the fabrication of these systems is costly, time consuming, and does not allow for the growth of large photonic structures. All-polymer photonic crystals could overcome this limitation thanks to easy solubility and melt processing. On the other hand, macromolecules often do not offer a dielectric contrast large enough to approach the performances of their inorganic counterparts. In this work, we demonstrate a new approach to achieve high dielectric contrast distributed Bragg reflectors with a photonic band gap that is tunable in a very broad spectral region. A highly transparent medium was developed through a blend of a commercial polymer with a high refractive index inverse vulcanized polymer that is rich in sulfur, where the large polarizability of the S-S bond provides refractive index values that are unconceivable with common non-conjugated polymers. This approach paves the way to the recycling of sulfur byproducts for new high added-value nano-structures.
2020
Pubblicato
Rilevanza internazionale
Articolo
Esperti non anonimi
Settore CHIM/05 - Scienza e Tecnologia dei Materiali Polimerici
English
Con Impact Factor ISI
polymer photonic crystals
inverse vulcanization
distributed Bragg reflectors
refractive index
Tavella, C., Lova, P., Marsotto, M., Luciano, G., Patrini, M., Stagnaro, P., et al. (2020). High Refractive Index Inverse Vulcanized Polymers for Organic Photonic Crystals. CRYSTALS, 10(3) [10.3390/cryst10030154].
Tavella, C; Lova, P; Marsotto, M; Luciano, G; Patrini, M; Stagnaro, P; Comoretto, D
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2108/364747
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