Nanostructured materials for photonics

Optically transparent polyimide:TiO₂ composite waveguide materials were prepared by the dispersion of nano-sized TiO₂ particles into a polyimide matrix. The particles were produced through reverse micelles using the sol-gel method, and were incorporated into the fluorinated polyimide solution. A polyimide:TiO₂ composite waveguide was produced from the solution. The measured optical propagation loss at 633 nm was 1.4 dB/cm, which is equivalent to that of the pure polyimide. The refractive index increased from 1.550 to 1.560 with the incorporation of TiO₂.