Plastic optical glass as a critical material for optics and photonics

The understanding of light-matter interaction processes has been essential for the attainment of many modern advancements in photonics, for instance the telecom revolution with lasers and fiber optics. Thereby, related industries greatly benefit from large availability of professionals, qualified for undertaking projects focused on devising and scaling products that may capitalize scientific progress on photonic materials and novel optical effects. Nevertheless, the familiarity with the application of these phenomena is usually gained by scientists and engineers at graduate education level, which commonly leads to a skilled workforce shortage. This lack of photonic-capable engineers becomes more critical when discussing nonlinear and quantum applications that will be broadly available soon. With this motivation, we present a nonlinear photonics hands-on training that could be integrated into curricula for photonics engineers or material scientists. The proposed session is aimed at undergraduate students, who would develop through practical experience relevant multidisciplinary skills for experimental design, data acquisition, setup configuration and optical alignment. Manuals are provided for the implementation of Z-Scan technique in the characterization of nonlinear optical materials. Equipment requirements are included along with the undergraduate-level theoretical content that may serve as introduction for students without prior exposure to nonlinear optics. Additionally, an open-source python-based software is provided for simplifying the extraction of Kerr effect and two-photon absorption figures of merit by means of the analysis of power measurements.

The Fifth International Conference on Optical, Optoelectronic and Photonic Materials and Applications (ICOOPMA 2012) was held at the Nara Prefectural New Public Hall, Nara, Japan from June 3 to 7, 2012. The conference was one of the series of previous four international conferences, the first of which was held in Darwin, Australia, in 2006. ICOOPMA 2007, 2008 and 2010 were held in London, UK (2007), Edmonton, Canada (2008), and Budapest, Hungary (2010), respectively. The scope of the conference covered a wide range of materials and applications in optics, optoelectronics and photonics. By tradition, the conference has a large number of invited papers from top researchers in various fields to review recent advances and bring the audience up‐to‐date.The topics emphasized were: Electro‐optic properties and applications, excitonic processes, experimental techniques, light emitting devices, luminescence, phosphors, scintillators and applications, materials for optoelectronics and photonics, modeling and simulation, nano‐optoelectronics and photonics, nonlinear optical properties and applications, optoelectronic and photonic devices, optical components for telecommunication, optical fibers, optical storage, photoconductivity, photoinduced effects, photovoltaic materials and devices, plasmons and surface plasmons, and terahertz materials, devices and techniques.The scientific program of the conference consisted of 4 plenary talks, 60 invited talks, 67 oral presentations and 161 poster presentations. The conference provided a major opportunity to learn much from all of the presentations. This has, undoubtedly, encouraged the invaluable cross‐fertilization of ideas from different areas. In addition, it provided an occasion for the younger members of the community to meet with some of its leading figures; and for them to learn from each other. There were also valuable opportunities for participants to meet and hold informal discussions in the beautiful and historical atmosphere at the ancient capital of Japan.An indication of the depth and breadth of scientific content that was presented and discussed at the conference can be found in this special issue. We hope that its readers will gain as much pleasure and benefit from this as those who were privileged to participate in this unique conference.Finally, we would like to express our sincere thanks to the members of the Organizing Committee, the International Program Committee, the International Advisory Committee and the Steering Committee of this conference. Especially, we thank Professors Safa Kasap, Koichi Shimakawa, Jai Singh and Sandor Kugler for their valuable advice and suggestions during the preparation of the conference. We also wish to thank all of those institutions and companies who by their invaluable support and sponsorship made this conference possible: Commemorative Organization for the Japan World Exposition (1970), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Nara Visitors Bureau, Support Center for Advanced Telecommunications Technology Research, Research Group on Photoelectronics of Disordered Materials (The Japan Society of Applied Physics), The Chemical Society of Japan, The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan, The Japan Society of Applied Physics, The Physical Society of Japan, The Society of Polymer Science, Japan, Division of Molecular Electronics and Bioelectronics (The Japan Society of Applied Physics), American Elements, Applied Materials, Asahi Spectra, Coherent, Hamamatsu Photonics, Japan Laser, Kodansha Scientific, NF Corporation, Niki Glass, Silvaco, THORLABS, Tokyo Electron, Tokyo Instruments, TOYO Corporation, Wave Front, Wiley‐Blackwell, and WITec.

Developments in the connected fields of optics, optoelectronics and photonics have had a profound effect on the emergence of modern technologies and their influence on our lives. In all of these fields, understanding and improving the basic underlying materials is of crucial importance for the development of systems and applications. The International Conference on Optical, Optoelectronic and Photonic Materials and Applications (ICOOPMA) has successfully married these fields and become a regular feature in the conference calendar. The 6th conference in the series, held at the University of Leeds from 27th July – 1st August, 2014, continued the ICOOPMA tradition and attracted 220 international delegates with a diverse range of disciplines and interests. The 59 papers in this Proceedings provide an excellent overview of the topics presented. The conference consisted of four thematic areas in the fields of inorganic semiconductors, carbon and polymeric materials, inorganic glasses and crystalline materials, and metamaterials and plasmonics where each theme area included research on basic materials through to device applications. The conference began with a Workshop organised by Professor Dan Hewak (University of Southampton) with speakers covering Organic Optoelectronic Complexes (Dr Richard Curry, University of Surrey), Metamaterials (Dr Vassili Fedotov, University of Southampton), Graphene (Dr Monica Craciun, University of Exeter) and Amorphous Semiconductors (Dr Jiri Orava, University of Cambridge and Tohoku University). This provided an excellent overview of a representative range of the important topics that were discussed further at the conference. The conference included a banquet which successfully combined excellent food with a relaxing opportunity for the conference delegates to socialise and network. The pinnacle of the evening was the after dinner speech given by our distinguished guest, Professor Sir David Payne (University of Southampton), who gave a highly informative and humorous history of the development of photonics and the important role played by optical fibres, of which he was one of the key pioneers. Emerging scientific talent was also given a platform, with a particular feature of the conference being the Young Scientists Forum, organised by Dr Senthil Ganapathy (University of Southampton), consisting of a series of themed sessions providing up-and-coming researchers a opportunity to present and discuss their work.Each technical theme of the conference was introduced with Plenary lectures delivered by leading international figures in their respective fields. Professor Jim Harris (Stanford University) discussed the development of epitaxially grown dilute-nitride semiconductors and the important role that they play in high efficiency solar cells. This theme was continued by Professor Wolfgang Stolz (Philipps University, Marburg) who described the use of novel III-V semiconductors for the development of lasers on silicon. Dr Jerry Meyer (Naval Research Laboratories) and Dr Kumar Patel (Pranalytica) discussed the important field of mid-infrared devices highlighting the significant developments that have been made in inter-band cascade and quantum cascade based devices, respectively and which have wide-ranging applications in sensing. Professor Neil Greenham (University of Cambridge) discussed solution-based semiconductors based on conjugated polymers and nanocrystals offering low cost routes to the wide-scale deployment of photonics. Professor Ortwin Hess (Imperial College) gave an overview of the physics and fascinating technological potential of negative refractive index materials. Professor Stephen Elliott (University of Cambridge) discussed the optoelectronic properties of phase change materials for memories. These areas were expanded upon in over 70 invited talks from international speakers highlighting recent developments in each of these areas. Further detailed discussions were presented in many parallel Oral and Poster sessions. This Proceedings provides an exciting and wide-ranging discussion of the topics presented at ICOOPMA 2014. We are very grateful to the many people who helped with the organisation of the conference, with particular thanks to Alison Whiteley and her team who enabled the smooth running of the conference, Dr Senthil Ganapathy for his many and wide ranging contributions to the conference and finally Professor Safa Kasap for his wisdom, advice and strong support. The conference could not have happened without the commitment of the Local Organising Committee, who helped in many ways to assemble and run the conference, and for the International Programme, Advisory and Steering committees who guided the technical direction of the conference and assisted with the conference programme and proceedings. We are also extremely pleased to have received generous sponsorship from a large number of organisations and companies. Finally, we are also very grateful to Sarah Toms and the Editorial staff at the Institute of Physics, and the many contributors and reviewers for helping us to put-together this proceedings.Stephen Sweeney, Guildford, UK Animesh Jha, Leeds, UK

Phase-separation engineering in fluorozirconate glass for designing and fabricating of transparent perfluorinate glass ceramic

Recent advances in nanoscale fabrication and characterization further accelerated research on photonics and plasmonics, which has already attracted long-standing interest. Alongside morphological constraints, phenomena in both fields highly depend on the materials’ optical properties, dimensions, and surroundings. Building up the required knowledge and experience to design next-generation photonic devices can be a complex task for novice and experienced researchers who intend to evaluate the impact of subtle material and morphology variations while setting up experiments or getting a general overview. Here, we introduce the Photonic Materials Cloud (PMCloud), a web-based, interactive open tool for designing and analyzing photonic materials. PMCloud allows identification of the subtle differences between optical material models generated from a database, experimental data input, and inline-generated materials from various analytical models. Furthermore, it provides a fully interactive interface to evaluate their performance in important fundamental (numerical) optical experiments. We demonstrate PMCloud’s applicability to state-of-the-art research questions, namely the comparison of the novel plasmonic materials aluminium-doped zinc oxide and zirconium nitride and the design of an optical, dielectric thin-film Bragg reflector. PMCloud opens a rapid, freely accessible path towards prototyping optical materials and simple fundamental devices and may serve as an educational platform for photonic materials research.

Pencil lead etched by plasma: Novel photonic material that can control the reflection from the visible to the infrared region

Nature has been a source of inspiration for the fabrication of new optical materials for centuries. During the last decades, the rapid developments in nanofabrication allowed mimicking the photonic properties of living organisms towards more efficient functional devices. But nanophotonics still relies on nanofabrication techniques and materials not compatible with the current environmental challenges. Bio-based optical materials have emerged as a sustainable alternative combining the best of both worlds: precise nanostructuring and unique optical properties with environmentally friendly natural production protocols.

We present a review of existing and potential next-generation far-infrared (20-60 μm) optical materials and devices. The far-infrared is currently one of the few remaining frontiers on the optical spectrum, a space underdeveloped and lacking in many of the optical and optoelectronic materials and devices taken for granted in other, more technologically mature wavelength ranges. The challenges associated with developing optical materials, structures, and devices at these wavelengths are in part a result of the strong phonon absorption in the Reststrahlen bands of III-V semiconductors that collectively span the far-infrared. More than just an underexplored spectral band, the far-IR may also be of potential importance for a range of sensing applications in astrochemistry, biology, and industrial and geological processes. Additionally, with a suitable far-IR optical infrastructure, it is conceivable that even more applications could emerge. In this review, we will present recent progress on far-infrared materials and phenomena such as phononic surface modes, engineered composite materials, and optoelectronic devices that have the potential to serve as the next generation of components in a far-infrared optical tool-kit.

The Springer Handbook of Electronic and Photonic Materials has been prepared to give a broad coverage of a wide range of electronic and photonic materials, starting from fundamentals and building up to advanced topics and applications. Its wide coverage with clear illustrations and applications, its chapter sequencing and logical flow, make it very different than other electronic materials handbooks. Each chapter has been prepared either by experts in the field or instructors who have been teaching the subject at a university or in corporate laboratories. The handbook provides an accessible treatment of the material by developing the subject matter in easy steps and in a logical flow. Wherever possible, the sections have been logically sequenced to allow a partial coverage at the beginning of the chapter for those who only need a quick overview of the subject. Additional valuable features include the practical applications used as examples, details on experimental techniques, useful tables that summarize equations, and, most importantly, properties of various materials. The handbook also has an extensive glossary at the end being helpful to those readers whose background may not be directly in the field. Key Topics Fundamental Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Properties Materials Growth and Characterization Materials for Electronics Materials for Optoelectronics and Photonics Novel Materials Selected Applications Features Contains over 600 two-color illustrations Includes over 100 comprehensive tables summarizing equations, experimental techniques and properties of various materials Emphasizes physical concepts over extensive mathematical derivations Parts and chapters with summaries, detailed index and fully searchable CD-ROM guarantee quick access to data and links to other sources Delivers a wealth of up-to-date references Incorporates a detailed Glossary of Terms

The interest in organic-inorganic hybrids as materials for optics and photonics started more than 25 years ago and since then has known a continuous and strong growth. The high versatility of sol-gel processing offers a wide range of possibilities to design tailor-made materials in terms of structure, texture, functionality, properties and shape modelling. From the first hybrid material with optical functional properties that has been obtained by incorporation of an organic dye in a silica matrix, the research in the field has quickly evolved towards more sophisticated systems, such as multifunctional and/or multicomponent materials, nanoscale and self-assembled hybrids and devices for integrated optics. In the present critical review, we have focused our attention on three main research areas: passive and active optical hybrid sol-gel materials, and integrated optics. This is far from exhaustive but enough to give an overview of the huge potential of these materials in photonics and optics (254 references).

We introduce the Optical Materials Express feature issue on Phase Change Materials for Optics and Photonics. This issue comprises a collection of seventeen manuscripts on the development, characterization, control, and applications of optical Phase Change Materials.

Review: ca. 280 refs.

The 14 papers published on this issue cover a broad range of photonic materials that are summarized in the following five sections: 1) Nonlinear Optical Materials; 2) Photovoltaics; 3) Infrared Optical Materials and Structures; 4) Hybrid or Nonconventional Optical Materials; and 5) Phosphor, Lighting and Display Materials.

Photonics, the manipulation of light at nanoscale, is a key enabling technology with impact in health and energy applications, among others. In most cases photonics still relies on materials and fabrication methods inherited from other disciplines, usually requiring expensive, time-consuming and environmentally-unfriendly processes. Recent experiments demonstrated that advanced photonic materials, as complex as those known as 2.5 dimensional slab photonic crystals, also occur naturally in diatoms. These microscopic algae precipitate silicic acid from water to produce silicon dioxide membranes, relying on intracellular biomineralization mechanisms. Addressing some important aspects for the potential industrial utilization of these structures, we here propose that optical materials produced by the diatoms could serve as cost-effective and environmentally friendly alternatives to cleanroom nanofabrication. We demonstrate that photonic materials grown by the diatom species Coscinodiscus granii can be separated based on its hydrokinetic characteristics. We further show that the photonic membranes present low defect rates of ca. 1/100 unit cells and that variation in pore diameter, as observed between individual membranes, can affect the photonic properties at large, but only marginally at low refractive index contrast. Finally, we list algal culture collections operating worldwide, thus providing a global network for live diatoms and diatom materials. We discuss the feasibility and bottlenecks related to scaled-up growth for direct utilization of photonic materials from diatoms.

The development of efficient and stable red and near-IR emitting materials under hard radiation doses and/or prolonged times is a sought-after task due to their widespread applications in optoelectronics and biophotonics. To this aim, novel symmetric all-BODIPY-triads, -pentads, and -hexads have been designed and synthesized as light-harvesting arrays. These photonic materials are spectrally active in the 655-730 nm region and display high molar absorption across UV-visible region. Furthermore, they provide, to the best of our knowledge, the highest lasing efficiency (up to 68 %) and the highest photostability (tolerance >1300 GJ mol-1 ) in the near-IR spectral region ever recorded under drastic pumping conditions. Additionally, the modular synthetic strategy to access the cassettes allows the systematic study of their photonic behavior related to structural factors. Collectively, the outstanding behavior of these multichromophoric photonic materials provides the keystone for engineering multifunctional systems to expedite the next generation of effective red optical materials.