Optical Circuits Researchers develop optical circuits based on plastic

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With the help of light, innovative polymer-based circuits that were developed at the German Friedrich Schiller University Jena can be controlled.

An interdisciplinary research team from the fields of chemistry and physics at the University of Jena/Germany developed a material coating whose light refraction properties can be precisely switched between different states. To achieve this, the team combined polymers - that is, plastics - that react to light with so-called metasurfaces. With this, they created new optical components that can possibly be used in signal processing.

Researchers create a completely new system from two known systems

"Both metasurfaces and light-switchable polymers have, in principle, been known for decades," explains team member Sarah Walden from the Institute of Solid State Physics. But the researchers from Jena are the first to combine both in this form to develop new components for optical applications. Metasurfaces, she further explains, are nanostructured thin layers whose characteristic structural sizes are smaller than the wavelength of light. This allows the properties of light and its propagation to be specifically influenced, enabling many optical functions that otherwise could only be provided by lenses, polarizers, or gratings. On the other hand, switchable polymers are plastics whose properties (such as the refractive index) can switch between different states.

Different light wavelengths switch on or off

"The polymers we used contain dye molecules," explains Felix Schacher from the Institute of Organic and Macromolecular Chemistry. This means they absorb light of a specific wavelength. And when they do so, they change their structure and thus their properties, such as the refractive index in this case. To then switch the dye back to its previous structure with the corresponding property, light of a different wavelength is needed. "What's special about our system is that changes in the refractive index affect the optical properties of the metasurface when it is coated with such a polymer," explains the physicist Isabelle Staude. The changes achieved are surprisingly clear, which is also the case compared to previously known similar systems. Because the polymers show different absorption depending on the dye, various effects can be very well controlled separately or combined.

And there was also a surprise during the work...

Apart from this interesting result, the team made another surprising discovery. They used two different dyes separately, each applied to a metasurface. This allowed the experts to confirm this effect. However, when mixing both switchable polymers, additional effects occur! Given this discovery, the team suspects that the two different dye molecules interact with each other, but further investigations are necessary to elucidate this interesting behavior.