University of Arizona researchers have developed a new class of high refractive index polymers that can be deposited as thin films and directly photo-patterned into useful device architectures. The resulting cured (e.g. photo-exposed) regions have a reduced refractive index, which is 0.01-0.05 lower than the unexposed regions and, hence, have tremendous potential for new polymer waveguide media using a high refractive index polymer (n>1.75). This new photo-responsive polymer can be easily created using UV exposure and solvent washing. These methods create a refractive index contrast in the polymer that can be used for fabricating optical wave guides.
Background: Thin film technology is a rapidly growing segment of the electronics and photonics industry. The growing and increasing connectivity of microelectronics and data requires scalable, inexpensive thin film technology to improve speed, power and efficiency for electronics, sensors, and communications networks.
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