Azobenzene-containing small molecules organic–inorganic hybrid sol–gel materials for photonic applications

Abstract

Azobenzene-containing germania-ormosil hybrid materials are prepared by combining a low-temperature sol–gel technique with a spin-coating process, which can be used for the simple and low cost fabrication of waveguide devices for photonic applications. The planar waveguide and structural properties of the hybrid waveguide films are characterized by a prism coupling technique and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The effects of azobenzene content and heat treatment temperature on the photo-responsive properties of the hybrid films are also studied by photoirradiation with UV light. The results indicate that the azobenzene in hybrid materials can undergo trans–cis–trans photoisomerization efficiently by photoirradiation with UV light, and surface pattern structure induced due to UV light photoirradiation can be easily observed on such azobenzene-doped hybrid materials. Thus, this as-prepared organic–inorganic hybrid sol–gel material shows promising candidates for optical switch applications and allows for directly integrating on a single chip waveguide device with optical data storage and optical switching devices.