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Organic photonics for communications

Nature Photonics volume 4, pages 438–446 (2010)Cite this article

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Abstract

Photons as information carriers have the potential to meet the ever-increasing demands on bandwidth and information density in fields such as information and communication technology, biomedicine and computing. Organic semiconductors may be well-suited to such applications, thanks to their ability to transmit, modulate and detect light in an architecture that is low cost, flexible, lightweight and robust. Here we review recent breakthroughs in organic photonics, including ultrafast all-optical modulation in polymer photonic crystals, silicon/organic hybrid systems, gain switching in polymer amplifiers and lasers, and new devices such as hybrid organic/inorganic electrically pumped lasers.

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Figure 1: Organic DFB laser.
Figure 2: Hybrid system: An inorganic LED pumping an organic laser.
Figure 3: Devices demonstrating ultrafast all-optical switching.
Figure 4: Organic photodetectors.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from EU projects 026365-POLYCOM, 248052-PHOTO-FET and Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship (JC). JC also thanks D. Narayana Rao and his group for generous hospitality and useful discussions.

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  1. Centre for Nanoscience and Technology, Dipartmento di Fisica, Italian Institute for Technology at Politecnico di Milano, Piazza L. da Vinci, 32, 20133, Milano, Italy

    Jenny Clark & Guglielmo Lanzani

  2. Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, J.J. Thomson Avenue, CB3 OHE, Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Jenny Clark

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Clark, J., Lanzani, G. Organic photonics for communications. Nature Photon 4, 438–446 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2010.160

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