Inorganic-organic hybrid materials for photonics

Molecular materials comprised of inorganic:organic composites are of considerable interest in photonics, optoelectronics and biophotonics. We report broad band lasing and tunable filters in sol-gel processed poly (p-phenylene vinylene) PPV: Silica composites. Optical power limiting in near IR wavelength region is also reported in dye doped PPV: silica multiphasic nanocomposites. For making hybrid inorganic: organic composites the reverse micelle mediated synthesis technique has been exploited to synthesize dye encapsulated metal oxide particles, thiocresol capped CdS clusters, CuI and AgI nanoparticles. These particles were dispersed in polymeric matrix for applications in photoconductivity and photorefractive measurements.