The Essential Handbook of Polymer Terms and Attributes

130 Photonic Polymers

DOI: 10.1201/9781003161318-130

Photonic polymers/polymer photonics refer to polymer materials or polymer composites that can generate, process, and manipulate photons to achieve a certain function. They are applied in optical communication, data transmission, storage, displays, and many other photonic applications.

Polymers can be used as materials for photonic applications in several ways. First, polymers can possess useful optical properties such as electroluminescence (Figure 130.1), photoluminescence, or nonlinear optical properties. Second, polymers can act as matrices for optically active species, e.g. for dyes, liquid crystals, quantum dots, or metal nanoparticles (Figure 130.2). Third, polymers possessing topographic ...