Integration of perylenediimides and metal nanoparticles in polymer waveguides for photonics

Resum

Currently there is a great concern to implement new photonic devices able to integrate several functionalities in nanoscale dimensions in a CMOs compatible platform. For this purpose, this Ph.D. project proposes to develop a new photonic technology based in the combination of metal nanoparticles (MNPs) with organic molecules, mainly perylenediimides (PDI) derivatives. The main target of this Ph.D. was the incorporation of PDI-derivatives and/or MNPs into polymer waveguides in order to use their active/plasmonic properties to construct novel integrated optical devices. In this way, the excellent properties of PDI-derivatives were firstly exploited to demonstrate optical amplification in the single pass propagation of PL signal along the optical waveguide, with a demonstrated threshold as low as 0.9 μJ and a linewidth of 2 nm. In parallel, the high scattering cross section of MNPs was designed to couple light inside optical waveguides, demonstrating light coupling in a wide wavelength range (404-750 nm) with an efficiency up to 1 %. The combination of both PDI and MNPs integrated in polymer waveguides was used to enhance the emission of light of PDI by exciton-plasmon weak coupling; the interaction was optimized by the geometrical parameters of the PDI-MNPs coupling structures and by their integration in an optical waveguide, where a Purcell factor of 10 was achieved. Finally, a random distributed feedback laser was fabricated by integrating MNPs with high scattering cross section together with amplification of the stimulated emission by PDI. The present research work led to three peer-reviewed publications in international journals of high impact factor, and a fourth article is now under preparation.