Tuesday 6 November 2018 16:00 – 17:00 Seminar Room 1
“Functional 3D Photonic Nanostructures Tuned for the Visible”
Dr. Ioanna Sakellari Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser (IESL)
Abstract
By coupling light with nanostructures many skills in controlling light have been achieved, most of which are impossible by bulk materials. A typical example of this type of novel artificially constructed materials is photonic crystals, i.e., a material that possesses a spatially periodic dielectric constant, which can strongly modulate electromagnetic waves and drive a photonic stopband; a frequency region where the propagation of light is forbidden. Depending on the dimensions of the photonic crystal, photonic stop-bands appear at different frequencies. Furthermore, utilizing the capabilities of modern nanotechnology, these interactions can be tailored at will depending on the material properties, the nanostructure geometry, and its surrounding. In this context, in the present talk, the synthesis of a novel active 3D printable hybrid material that can be employed for the fabrication of visible light active 3D photonic devices by combining twophoton direct laser writing and in situ synthesis of semiconductor nanoparticles will be discussed. In particular, it will be demonstrated experimentally how the two-in-one functional properties of the novel active nanocomposite material presented – namely high spatial resolution and high χ(3) nonlinear response, can be effectively utilized, firstly, to realize the visible light photonic band gap properties of 3D woodpile photonic crystals as clearly evidenced by the existence of pronounced photonic stop-bands and, secondly, to demonstrate, for the first time, evidence of ultrafast dynamic tuning of the photonic band gap properties in the visible. The work presented shows that the integration of active media and functional materials is a promising approach to the realization of active integrated photonics for visible light using high throughput technologies.