Organic printed photonics: From microring lasers to integrated circuits

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Materials Science
• Organic Electronics

Background:

• Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) offer high speed and parallel processing but rely on diverse materials.
• Organic molecular materials present a flexible platform for photonics, yet fabrication challenges persist.
• Solution printing techniques show promise for large-scale fabrication of micro/nano devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate function-directed fabrication of high-quality organic photonic devices and circuits using a solution printing technique.
• To explore the potential of soft photonics for creating flexible and integrated optical systems.
• To overcome fabrication challenges in organic integrated photonics.

Main Methods:

• Prepared size-tunable, reproducible polymer microring resonators on wafer-scale flexible chips via solution printing.
• Fabricated low-threshold microlasers by doping organic functional molecules into printed photonic devices.
• Designed and assembled complex one-dimensional waveguide and resonator components on-chip.

Main Results:

• Achieved a quality (Q) factor > 4 × 10^5 for printed optical resonators, comparable to silicon-based ones.
• Demonstrated low-threshold microlaser functionality on the flexible photonic chip.
• Successfully integrated waveguides and resonators for light signal filtering and optical storage.

Conclusions:

• Developed a viable scheme for soft photonic integration using solution-printed organic materials.
• The high performance and material compatibility of printed photonic chips open new avenues for organic photonics.
• This approach facilitates large-scale on-chip integration of microscopic photonic units, motivating further research.