New photonics media prepared by sol-gel process

It is recognized that the earliest and most prodigious development in photonics technology will be in the area of second-order nonlinear optical processes: second-harmonic generation and electro-optic modulation. Photonics applications will undoubtedly involve an integration of fast and reliable high-speed optical crossbar switches, electric field sensing devices, and beam alignment of read-write heads for optical data storage in optical computers. The requirements for such devices are very rigorous, and their development relies on employing photonics materials whose linear and nonlinear optical properties can be engineered. There are several organic materials that are being developed into viable devices due to the fact that their χ⁽²⁾ nonlinearities are much higher than those of existing dielectrics. The most recent materials applied to integrated optics have been the sol-gel processed glasses and glass/polymer nanocomposites which have the inherent advantages of being more easily processed and are cost effective. We report in this paper the recent developments of studies involving linear and nonlinear optical properties of some novel sol-gel processed inorganic oxides/organic polymer composites for nonlinear optics and photonics applications.