Stress is a natural response of the body to threatening and challenging situations. Although stress can sometimes have positive impacts, such as enhanced alertness and improved performance, it can also cause harmful effects, such as sustained high blood pressure, anxiety, and depression, especially when prolonged. Continuous monitoring of stress-related molecules, known as stress biomarkers, could enable early diagnosis of stress conditions and therefore improve recovery and reduce healthcare costs and long absences from work. We present a highly sensitive grating-coupled surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensor for detecting stress biomarkers. The gold-coated sensor chip operates with a tunable laser within the wavelength range of 1527 to 1565 nm. This sensing method is based on detecting a shift of the SPR wavelength, which occurs due to a change in the refractive index of the medium that is caused by the presence of analytes near the plasmonic grating. The sensor chip was tested with four stress-related biomarkers: glucose, creatinine, lactate, and cortisol. With the current version of the sensor, containing no recognition element, the achieved detection limits for these analytes were 5.9, 7.1, 36.9, and 10.7 mM, respectively, which are close to the physiological values of these analytes in body fluids, such as sweat. This proof-of-concept work demonstrates the sensitivity and physiologically relevant detection limits of the presented compact sensor chip and its potential for future healthcare applications, such as continuous stress monitoring, when developed further.
Stress is a widely spread phenomenon in the modern society. Only work-related stress was estimated to cost US companies more than $300 billion a year in healthcare costs, absences and decreased performance. Early diagnosis of stress conditions and therefore improved recovery and reduced costs could potentially be achieved with continuous monitoring of stress biomarkers using wearable devices. Compared to the conventional electrochemical and optical sensing methods used in current wearable devices, plasmonic sensing could offer higher sensitivity, better stability and faster data collection. Our developed plasmonic sensor chip represents a nanograting structured polymer on a silicon substrate, covered with gold. The sensing method is based on detecting a surface plasmon resonance wavelength shift due to refractive index change caused by presence of analytes in the vicinity of the plasmonic grating. The sensitivity of the chip was tested with two different stress-related biomarkers: cortisol and creatinine. With the tested range from 0 to 265 mM, in the current version of the system, without a receptor layer, the detection limits for cortisol and creatinine were 10.65 and 7.09 mM, respectively, which are close to the physiological ranges of these analytes in body fluids. When integrated into a wearable device, this approach has a potential in future healthcare applications paving the way to continuous stress monitoring.
Prism-based Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) sensor is a powerful label-free analytical technique used in food safety, medical diagnostics, and environmental monitoring. It is currently mainly used in centralized laboratories due to its size and price. Grating-based SPR sensors offer a cost-effective and miniaturized alternative for point-of-care applications. However, grating based SPR sensors have limited performance and robustness for practical use. In this study, we present a high-performance, robust, and compact grating based SPR sensor enabled by a tunable laser working at normal excitation and readout incidence. This configuration eliminates the spectral analysis and moving parts, thereby enhancing the robustness of the instrumentation. The sensor was designed, optimized, and analyzed using COMSOL Multiphysics, and then fabricated through nanoimprinting lithography. Both computationally and experimentally, we demonstrated the SPR dip splitting at non-zero incidence, which was lacking in previously reported grating-based SPR sensor studies. The sensor was tested with glucose solutions, achieving a sensitivity of 1101.6 m/RIU. The figure of merit of the sensor was 229.5 surpassing other reported grating-based SPR sensors by one order of magnitude. The experimental results were in good agreement with the simulations. We also demonstrate its performance in detecting low concentrations of glucose and creatinine with the limit of detection of 14.2 mM and 19.1 mM, respectively. These results show the potential of our high-performance, portable SPR sensor for point-of-care applications.
In stressful situations, concentrations of various molecules in the human body shift in response to the stressor. These molecules are measurable indicators of stress and are therefore called stress biomarkers. In many stress conditions, such as in overtraining syndrome, early detection of these biomarkers is highly important as the conditions are often not fully reversible. Early detection of the stress symptoms could be achieved with wearable sensors that would continuously monitor health information from different body fluids, such as sweat, urine, saliva, tears and blood. Compared to more conventional electrochemical or optical methods, plasmonic sensing could offer higher sensitivity, better stability and faster data collection while enabling implementation to compact devices. In this work, a sensor chip, based on grating-coupled surface plasmon resonance, is proposed for stress biomarker detection. In this work, we show a highly sensitive grating-based SPR sensor working in concert with a tunable laser within the wavelength range of 1528-1565 nm. The SPR sensor was designed using COMSOL Multiphysics software and was fabricated by means of UV nanoimprinting lithography. The implemented SPR sensor shows sensitivity close to 1200 nm/RIU, with a figure of merit (a ratio between the sensitivity and the full width at half maximum of the SPR dip) exceeding 400. The experimental results are strongly in agreement with COMSOL simulations. Such impressive characteristics of the fabricated sensor are among the best reported in the literature. The sensitivity of the chip was tested with two different stress-related biomarkers: glucose and lactate. With the tested range of 0 to 1.1 M, in the current version of the setup, without a receptor layer, the detection limits of glucose and lactate were 5.9 and 36.9 mM, respectively, which are close to the physiological ranges of these analytes in body fluids. The detection limit can be further improved with the sensor functionalization, thermal stabilization and mechanical isolation. When integrated into a wearable device, this approach has a potential in future healthcare applications, such as in continuous stress monitoring.
Upconversion (UC) luminescence sensing is a technique to improve the detection limit of conventional fluorescence in biosensing that is commonly limited by the autofluorescence-generated background signal. The main limitation of UC materials is their low wavelength conversion efficiency. Many studies have been made to enhance the efficiency of UC materials by optimizing light absorption and energy transfer processes. However, rather low efficiency remains an issue limiting the practical usage of UC materials in biosensors. Plasmon enhancement is a way to improve UC photoluminescence by enhancing the excitation and emission rates. In this study, we modeled and fabricated gold gratings for exciting surface plasmon polaritons (SPPs) at 976-nm wavelength. We aim at increasing the local optical intensity at the locations of UC nanoparticles on a nano-structured plasmonic surface. The UC nanoparticles were adsorbed on the gratings via biomolecule conjugation. UC photoluminescence on the gratings was compared with flat gold surfaces. Experimentally, we achieved UC enhancement up to 70, which is relatively high in comparison with other plasmon-enhanced UC techniques presented in the literature. The results of our work can be applied in various biosensing applications in which low excitation intensity is preferred.
Medical device industry is a rapidly growing area providing significant opportunities for the photonics technology suppliers. The heterogeneous nature of photonics and lack of available fabrication processes with medical certificates set challenges for a rapid adaption of the latest photonics technologies. The aim of MedPhab photonics pilot line is to establish seamless research and development chains between research organization and industry accelerating the product launch in regulated domain.
In food industry, detection of spoilage yeasts such as W. anomalus and B. bruxellensis and pathogens such as certain Listeria and E. coli species can be laborious and time-consuming. In the present study, a simple and repeatable technique was developed for rapid yeast detection using a combination of patterned gold coated polymer SERS substrates and gold nanoparticles [1−4]. For the first time, a state-of-the-art time-gated Raman detection approach was used as a complementary technique to show the possibility of using 532-nm pulsed laser excitation and avoid the destructive influence of induced fluorescence [3].
Conventional nanoparticles synthesized by colloidal chemistry are typically contaminated by non-biocompatible by-products (surfactants, anions), which can have negative impacts on many live objects under examination (cells, bacteria) and thus decrease the precision of bioidentification. Here, we explore novel ultrapure laser-synthesized Au-based nanomaterials, including Au NPs and Au Si hybrid nanostructures, as mobile SERS probes in tasks of bacteria detection [3].
We demonstrate successful identification of two types of bacteria (L. innocua and E. coli) and yeast (W. anomalus and B. bruxellensis). They showed several differing characteristic peaks making the discrimination of these yeasts possible without the need for chemometric analysis [2]. The use of composite gold-silicon laser-ablated nanoparticles in combination with the SERS substrate gave distinctive spectra for all the detected species. The detection limit of the studied species varied within 104-107 CFU/ml. The obtained results open up opportunities for non-disturbing investigation of biological systems by profiting from excellent non-disturbing nature of laser-synthesized nanomaterials in combination with outstanding optical detection technologies [2, 3].
[1] Uusitalo et al. 2016, http://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2016/ra/c6ra08313g
[2] Uusitalo et al. 2017a, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0260877417302054
[3] Kögler et al. 2018, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jbio.201700225
[4] Uusitalo et al. 2017b, https://www.spiedigitallibrary.org/journalArticle/Download?fullDOI=10.1117/1.OE.56.3.037102
Immunomagnetic separation (IMS) beads with antibody coating are an interesting option for biosensing applications for the identification of biomolecules and biological cells, such as bacteria. The paramagnetic properties of the beads can be utilized with optical sensing by migrating and accumulating the beads and the bound analytes toward the focus depth of the detection system by an external magnetic field. The stability of microbial detection with IMS beads was studied by combining a flexible, inexpensive, and mass producible surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) platform with gold nanoparticle detection and antibody recognition by the IMS beads. Listeria innocua ATCC 33090 was used as a model sample and the effect of the IMS beads on the detected Raman signal was studied. The IMS beads were deposited into a hydrophobic sample well and accumulated toward the detection plane by a neodymium magnet. For the first time, it was shown that the spatial stability of the detection could be improved up to 35% by using IMS bead capture and sample well placing. The effect of a neodymium magnet under the SERS chip improved the temporal detection and significantly reduced the necessary time for sample stabilization for advanced laboratory testing.
Polymers have become an important material group in fabricating discrete photonic components and integrated optical devices. This is due to their good properties: high optical transmittance, versatile processability at relative low temperatures and potential for low-cost production. Recently, nanoimprinting or nanoimprint lithography (NIL) has obtained a plenty of research interest. In NIL, a mould is pressed against a substrate coated with a moldable material. After deformation of the material, the mold is separated and a replica of the mold is formed. Compared with conventional lithographic methods, imprinting is simple to carry out, requires less-complicated equipment and can provide high-resolution with high throughput. Nanoimprint lithography has shown potential to become a method for low-cost and high-throughput fabrication of nanostructures. We show the development process of nano-structured, large-area multi-parameter sensors using Photonic Crystal (PC) and Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) methodologies for environmental and pharmaceutical applications. We address these challenges by developing roll-to-roll (R2R) UV-nanoimprint fabrication methods. Our development steps are the following: Firstly, the proof of concept structures are fabricated by the use of wafer-level processes in Si-based materials. Secondly, the master molds of successful designs are fabricated, and they are used to transfer the nanophotonic structures into polymer materials using sheet-level UV-nanoimprinting. Thirdly, the sheet-level nanoimprinting processes are transferred to roll-to-roll fabrication. In order to enhance roll-to-roll manufacturing capabilities, silicone-based polymer material development was carried out. In the different development phases, Photonic Crystal and SERS sensor structures with increasing complexities were fabricated using polymer materials in order to enhance sheet-level and roll-to-roll manufacturing processes. In addition, chemical and molecular imprint (MIP) functionalization methods were applied in the sensor demonstrators. In this paper, the process flow in fabricating large-area nanophotonic structures by the use of sheet-level and roll-to-roll UV- nanoimprinting is reported.
A fully polymer slot Young interferometer operating at 633 nm wavelength was fabricated by using nanoimprint molding method. The phase response of the interference pattern was measured with several concentrations of glucose-water solutions, utilizing both TE and TM polarization states. The sensor was experimentally found to detect a bulk refractive index change of 6.4×10-6 RIU. Temperature dependency of silicon slot waveguide has been demonstrated to be reduced with composite slot waveguide structure. The slot filled with thermally stable polymer having negative thermo-optic coefficient showed nearly an athermal operation of silicon slot waveguide. Experimental results show that the slot waveguide geometry covered with Ormocomp has thermo-optical coefficient of 6 pm/K.
An Interferometric Polymer Optical Waveguide Sensor (IPOWS) for intravascular optoacoustic signal detection has been
fabricated by UV-imprinting method. The sensor has been characterized in sensitivity, dynamic range and frequency
bandwidth. We have compared experimentally the performance of the IPOWS with a piezoelectric ultra wideband sensor
and other optical fiber sensors based on single-mode silica and polymer optical fibers. All sensors are designed for the
detection of optoacoustic wave sources with a frequency bandwidth that exceed 10MHz.
Low-loss polymeric optical waveguides were fabricated by UV-nanoimprinting. With this technique the waveguides are
directly patterned by imprinting of the UV-curable optical polymer materials, i.e. no etching processes are needed. By
properly manufactured imprinting molds, very smooth waveguide surfaces are achieved and the optical loss is dominated
by the material attenuation. The advantages of the manufacturing technology include the potential scalability onto large
substrate areas and applicability for fabrication on various substrate materials. For instance, printed circuit boards are
interesting substrates for high-bit-rate optical interconnection applications requiring long waveguides, and glass and
plastic sheets are interesting for sensor applications. The technology also promises for low overall costs, as it is a
relatively simple high-throughput replication process. Both ridge-type and inverted-rib-type single-mode waveguides
were fabricated using Ormocer hybrid polymer materials having low optical attenuation. Very low loss waveguides were
demonstrated by fabrication long waveguides in a spiral shape. The optical attenuation was characterized of 27 cm-long
inverted-rib waveguide spirals having 2 μm-wide cores. The measured average attenuation was 0.25 and 0.56 dB/cm at
the wavelengths of 638 and 1310 nm, respectively.
We demonstrate low-loss silicon slot waveguides filled with single and dual atomic layer deposited oxide layers.
Propagation losses less than 5 dB/cm and 8 dB/cm are achieved for the waveguides with single (Al2O3) and double
(Al2O3-TiO2) layers, respectively. The devices are fabricated using low-temperature CMOS compatible processes. The
geometries allow nonlinearities nearly two orders of magnitude smaller than plain silicon waveguides.
In this work, we investigate the usability of layered polymer - inorganic composite waveguides for label-free sensing of
surface bound bioreactions in an aqueous environment. The waveguide structure consists of a nanoimprint fabricated
polymeric inverted rib waveguide with a sputtered Ta2O5 thin film on top. The interaction of the optical field with the
surface is increased as a consequence of the mode profile localization near the surface, when high-index coating is
deposited on a low-index waveguide. Young interferometer configuration with reference and sensors waveguide arms
was utilized in sensor chips. Light from a laser source was end-fire coupled into the chips and interference pattern
produced by the outcoupled light was investigated. External μ-fluidic pump was used to produce the analyte flow.
Ambient refractive index change was characterized by applying DI-water with varying glucose concentration on
waveguides. With the waveguide length of 1 cm a detection limit in the order of 10-7 - 10-6 refractive index unit (RIU)
was achieved. Specific binding reactions on the surface were investigated with C - reactive protein (CRP) antibodies and
antigens.
This paper presents research activities carried out at VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland in the field of hybrid
integration of optics, electronics and mechanics. Main focus area in our research is the manufacturing of electronic
modules and product structures with printed electronics, film-over-molding and polymer sheet lamination technologies
and the goal is in the next generation of smart systems utilizing monolithic polymer packages. The combination of
manufacturing technologies such as roll-to-roll -printing, injection molding and traditional component assembly is called
Printed Hybrid Systems (PHS).
Several demonstrator structures have been made, which show the potential of polymer packaging technology. One
demonstrator example is a laminated structure with embedded LED chips. Element thickness is only 0.3mm and the
flexible stack of foils can be bent in two directions after assembly process and was shaped curved using heat and
pressure. The combination of printed flexible circuit boards and injection molding has also been demonstrated with
several functional modules. The demonstrators illustrate the potential of origami electronics, which can be cut and folded
to 3D shapes. It shows that several manufacturing process steps can be eliminated by Printed Hybrid Systems
technology. The main benefits of this combination are small size, ruggedness and conformality. The devices are ideally
suited for medical applications as the sensitive electronic components are well protected inside the plastic and the
structures can be cleaned easily due to the fact that they have no joints or seams that can accumulate dirt or bacteria.
An Interferometric Polymer Optical Waveguide Sensor (IPOWS) for optoacoustic signal detection has been fabricated
by UV-imprinting method. The sensor has been characterized in sensitivity, dynamic range and frequency bandwidth.
The noise equivalent pressure (NEP) of the sensor is around 100 Pa for a bandwidth range of 20 MHz. We have
compared experimentally the performance of the IPOWS with a piezoelectric ultra wideband sensor and other optical
fiber sensors based on single-mode silica and polymer optical fibers. All sensors are designed for the detection of
optoacoustic wave sources with a frequency bandwidth that exceed 10MHz.
Polymers are important materials in fabrication of photonics devices due to their good optical properties, such as, high
transmittivity, versatile processability also at low temperatures allowing potential for low-cost fabrication. A critical
requirement in the fabrication of integrated optical devices has been selecting a most suitable method for patterning the
ridge bounding the optical mode in the waveguide. In this paper, we discuss a UV-imprint fabrication of polymeric
single-mode waveguides with different configurations: ridge type, inverted rib type and layered composite waveguides.
A ridge waveguide type consists of a strip waveguide superimposed onto a slab waveguide made of the same material.
When patterning a ridge by imprinting technique, a residual layer is formed underneath the imprinted ridges. A too thick
residual layer might cause a loss of propagation mode due to power leakage to the slab guide, which might require a
subsequent etching step. In inverted rib waveguide structure, a groove of cladding material is patterned by imprinting.
This is followed by the filling of the groove with a core material. From the imprint fabrication point of view, the
fabrication tolerances can be relaxed because the residual slab layer underneath the waveguide can have arbitrary
thickness. Besides fabrication of above mentioned waveguide structures, we also investigate the possibility to produce
composite waveguide devices by depositing inorganic thin films with high-refractive index on UV-imprinted polymeric
structures with low-refractive. The purpose to use composite structures is to manipulate the optical field distribution in
waveguides.
We discuss the applicability of using polymers for producing slot waveguide modes in single and triple-slot waveguide
structures. We use finite element method to computationally study the field confinement and enhancement in the slot
region with and without high refractive index coating on the top of the low index polymeric waveguide. The sensitivity
to refractive index shift in ambient surrounding is improved almost five times in proposed high index coated polymer
triple-slot waveguide structure compared to the ridge polymer waveguide.
The fabrication of polymer based waveguide devices by different methods is investigated in this work including
lithographic, imprinting and focused-ion-beam processing. Also, the combination of luminescent substance with
waveguide is evaluated to produce integrated optical micro system including both the light source and sensor structure
on a single platform.
Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a promising method to grow optical materials on waveguide structures. Propagation
loss analysis indicates that amorphous TiO2 and Al2O3 films are promising for the waveguide purposes.
Instead, polycrystalline ZnO does not work properly as a waveguide by itself, but the waveguiding properties
can probably be enhanced by introducing intermediate Al2O3 layers. The wide variety of available materials,
conformal growth properties and low scattering losses of many ALD films enable their usage in various waveguide
applications. Experimental coating of silicon waveguides is discussed.
An important challenge that remains to date in board level optical interconnects is the coupling between the optical
waveguides on printed wiring boards and the packaged optoelectronics chips, which are preferably surface mountable on
the boards. One possible solution is the use of Ball Grid Array (BGA) packages. This approach offers a reliable
attachment despite the large CTE mismatch between the organic FR4 board and the semiconductor materials.
Collimation via micro-lenses is here typically deployed to couple the light vertically from the waveguide substrate to the
optoelectronics while allowing for a small misalignment between board and package. In this work, we explore the
fabrication issues of an alternative approach in which the vertical photonic connection between board and package is
governed by a micro-optical pillar which is attached both to the board substrate and to the optoelectronic chips. Such an
approach allows for high density connections and small, high-speed detector footprints while maintaining an acceptable
tolerance between board and package. The pillar should exhibit some flexibility and thus a high-aspect ratio is preferred.
This work presents and compares different fabrication methods and applies different materials for such high-aspect ratio
pillars. The different fabrication methods are: photolithography, direct laser writing and deep proton writing. The
selection of optical materials that was investigated is: SU8, Ormocers, PU and a multifunctional acrylate polymer. The
resulting optical pillars have diameters ranging from 20um up to 80um, with total heights ranging between 30um and
100um (symbol for micron). The aspect-ratio of the fabricated structures ranges from 1.5 to 5.
The driving force behind combining the nanoimprinting and photolithography is to effectively utilize the advantages of
both patterning techniques simultaneously. Conventional shadow-mask UV-lithography can be used to pattern micron-scale
structures uniformly over large areas, whereas nanoimprinting enables patterning of nanoscale features, which can
also be tilted or round-shaped. We present the work on direct patterning of micro-optical structures by combined
nanoimprinting and lithography using modified mask aligner, hybrid mask mold and directly patternable, UV-curable
materials. Patterning of structures is carried out in wafer-level fashion. Hybrid mask mold fabrication can be realized for
example by modifying conventional shadow-mask using focused ion beam (FIB) milling, or by patterning a mold area on
shadow-mask surface by nanoimprinting. One of the advantages of proposed fabrication method is that there is no need
for reactive ion etching (RIE) process steps. We present also near-field holography (NFH) as a method of grating mold
fabrication. Fabricated micro-optical structures include directly patterned waveguides with light coupling gratings, and
also pyramid-shaped gratings which show antireflection properties in the mid-infrared spectral region.
Optical properties of ferroelectric BaTiO3 (BTO) and paraelectric SrTiO3 (STO) multilayer structures were investigated
as a possible material choice for thin-film electro-optic devices. It has been demonstrated that dielectric properties can be
enhanced by optimizing the stacking periodicity of BTO-STO superlattices, and in this work, it was studied how the
shifts in permittivity are transferred to the optical properties. BTO-STO superlattices with stacking periodicity varying
between 27 Å and 1670 Å were grown on MgO substrates by pulsed laser deposition. In x-ray diffraction patterns,
periodic satellite peaks were observed indicating the formation artificial superlattices. The evolution of electro-optic
response with varying stacking periodicity was analyzed by ellipsometric transmission method. The electro-optic
response reached a maximum at a stacking periodicity of 105 Å corresponding the individual layer thickness of 13 unit
cells. The suitability of superlattices, and also single layer BTO thin films, in planar optical devices were evaluated by
fabricating and characterizing Mach - Zehnder waveguide modulators.
A network for prototyping imaging lenses using injection moulding was established in Finland. The network consists of several academic and industrial partners capable of designing, processing and characterising imaging lenses produced by injection moulding technology. In order to validate the operation of the network a demonstrator lens was produced. The process steps included in the manufacturing were lens specification, designing and modelling, material selection, mould tooling, moulding process simulation, injection moulding and characterisation. A magnifying imaging singlet lens to be used as an add-on in a camera phone was selected as a demonstrator. The design of the add-on lens proved to be somewhat challenging, but a double aspheric singlet lens design fulfilling nearly the requirement specification was produced. In the material selection task the overall characteristics profile of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) material was seen to be the most fitting to the pilot case. It is a low cost material with good moulding properties and therefore it was selected as a material for the pilot lens.
Lens mould design was performed using I-DEAS and tested by using MoldFlow 3D injection moulding simulation software. The simulations predicted the achievable lens quality in the processing, when using a two-cavity mould design. First cavity was tooled directly into the mould plate and the second cavity was made by tooling separate insert pieces for the mould. Mould material was steel and the inserts were made from Moldmax copper alloy. Parts were tooled with high speed milling machines. Insert pieces were hand polished after tooling. Prototype lenses were injection moulded using two PMMA grades, namely 6N and 7N. Different process parameters were also experimented in the injection moulding test runs. Prototypes were characterised by measuring mechanical dimensions, surface profile, roughness and MTF of the lenses. Characterisations showed that the lens surface RMS roughness was 30-50 nm and the profile deviation was 5 μm from the design at a distance of 0.3 mm from the lens vertex. These manufacturing defects caused that the measured MTF values were lower than designed. The lens overall quality, however, was adequate to demonstrate the concept successfully. Through the implementation of the demonstrator lens we could test effectively different stages of the manufacturing process and get information about process component weight and risk factors and validate the overall performance of the network.
In the last decade, the processing of the waveguide structures on various substrates under mild conditions has been an appealing aim. The lithographic patterning of organic-inorganic hybrid materials processed by means of sol-gel technology allows the production of waveguides and other optical components.
We describe the synthesis of a new, photo-patternable, organically modified material with an improved ageing stability. Synthesis step does not involve widely used zirconia precursors, but it retains the same possibility of altering the refractive index by tailoring of the material composition. Refractive index values varied from 1.4700 to 1.5100. Measured birefringence values meet the requirements of most integrated planar optic applications. The synthesized material is compatible with silicon, glass and plastic substrates.
Material was analyzed using 29Si NMR techniques. The processed slab waveguides were characterized by using the prism coupling technique at various wavelengths. The attenuation in the waveguide was determined by the cut-back method, and it was found to be less than 0.5dB/cm at the wavelength of 830 nm. The morphology of the microstructures was measured by using the interferometer equipment. Slab waveguides rms values were in order of only 2 nm.
In this study, the sol-gel process to fabricate directly UV-photopatternable lanthanum-doped lead zirconate titanate (PLZT) films was investigated. Photosensitive films were obtained via chemical methacrylic acid modification of metal organic PLZT precursors. Spin-on deposited films were patterned using direct UV-photolithography process. Patterned films were annealed in air, in order to obtain perovskite type crystalline material. AFM and XRD techniques were used for the characterization of the material and fabricated structures. The sol-gel processed PLZT films had good crystallinity, they were crack-free, and had low surface roughness. The films exhibit electro-optic effect being therefore interesting to be used in active integrated optic devices.
Lithographic patterning of organic-inorganic hybrid materials processed by the use of sol-gel technology allows for the generation of waveguide structures at low temperatures onto polymer or ceramic substrates. In addition, sol-gel technology provides the possibility to process precision structures, such as, grooves and cavities, which are applicable for the passive alignment of photonic devices. This provides the possibility for the realization of mass-producible photonic circuits onto large-area substrates. At the moment, the most potential applications are systems based on then use of multimode waveguide structures. Actually, when utilizing sol-gel technology, the challenge is how to process homogenous, low-loss and high-aspect-ratio structures. In addition, when aiming to highly mass-producible multimode modules, the key issue is the alignment of photonic devices preferably by the use of passive precision structures. In the future, when the systems need to be more complicated, the modeling of systems requires sophisticated 3D modeling tools. In this paper, the processing of multimode structures with sol-gel technologies is described, and the characterization results of prototype devices are reported. In addition, molding and cofiring technologies potentially applicable for the hybrid integration of photonic modules are reviewed. Finally, the future research aims for the commercialization of photonic modules based on the use of sol-gel technologies are envisioned.
The transient and steady state performance of organic light- emitting devices (OLEDs) has been investigated with a view towards suitability for pulse sources. The rise and fall times of the electroluminescence of the different structures and materials were afforded special attention. The tested devices cover single and multi-layer structures with different layer thicknesses. Both molecular and polymeric- based devices were tested. Molecular materials used in the OLEDs were N, N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-N,N'-diphenylbenzidine (TPD) as a hole transporter, tris-(8-hydroxyquinolate) aluminum (Alq3) as an electron transporter/emitter and 4,7-diphenyl-1,10-phenanthroline (BCP) as a hole blocking material. Poly)2-methoxy, 5-(2'-ethyl-hexoxy)-1,4- phenylene-vinylene) (MEH-PPV) and poly(3,4- ethylenedioxythiophene)/poly(styrene) (PEDOT/PSS) were the polymeric materials used in the devices. The effect of the driving voltage on the response time and the current density in transients was under investigation. In addition, changes in the response time were studied, when the bias voltage was applied.
Liquid phase deposition of sol-gel method derived hybrid glass materials is utilized for fabrication of UV light deformable thin films. The hybrid glass material undergoes a surface-relief deformation when exposed to UV light. The observed deformation phenomenon is in the form of a physical expansion of the exposed areas. The maximum deformation when the material was patterned as a sinusoidal grating was 643 nm. The hybrid glass material features an index of refraction of 1.52, rms surface roughness of 2.25 +/- 0.83 nm after processing, and extinction coefficients of 1.2 10-3 micrometers -1 and 0.47 10-3 micrometers -1 at wavelengths of 633 nm and 1550 nm, respectively.
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