English Abstract

Photonic Crystals Fabricated Using Block Copolymers

Shigeru OKAMOTO
Nagoya Institute of Technology Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Japan
Nippon Gomu Kyokaishi,(2013),86(10),315-320 General Review in Japanese

Block copolymers spontaneously form such highly ordered self-assembled structures as opals and bright blue wings of morphos do, which provide very promising photonic crystals for non-linear optical devices to establish a ubiquitous society on the basis of high-speed communication. We control the flow of light by understanding and controlling the mechanism of the structures formation. We have succeeded in fabrication of photonic crystals using ultrahigh-molecular-weight block copolymers in semi-dilute solutions by addition of non- or highly-selective solvents. Our photonic crystals fabricated here showed high tunability of the periods and morphologies that are applicable to nonlinear optical devices because of softness of polymers. In this article, the formation mechanism of highly-ordered microdomain structures in the solutions as well as historical background of optical devices and photonic crystals are reviewed.

Keywords: block copolymer, photonic crystal, semi-dilute solution, non-linear optical property