The rapidly developing field of photonics has been revolutionized by the use of versatile, inexpensive polymeric materials. Highlighting the need for future photonic elements, in particular when analogy is drawn with the field of electronics, the latest special issue from the Journal of Polymer Science: Polymer Physics focuses on polymers for optics applications.
Guest edited by Dr. Timothy Bunning (Air Force Research Laboratory), the issue includes complementary reviews, perspectives, and full papers from industry and academia on key topics to provide a broad cross-section of viewpoints. Some areas of focus include liquid crystal composites, azopolymers, photorefractive polymers for holography, distributed feedback lasers, and electric/magnetic field sensors. A full list of topics and authors with links to individual articles is below, and the entire issue is free to read here.
As the control of data and information becomes increasingly more reliant on the efficient transport of light, the need for flexible, economic materials continues to grow. The contributors to this special issue provide a wide sampling of the rich and multidisciplinary research being carried out across the world in polymer optics.
Contributions to the special issue:
Reviews:
Arri Priimagi and Andriy Shevchenko – Azopolymer-based micro- and nanopatterning for photonic applications
Jie Sun and Shin-Tson Wu – Recent advances in polymer network liquid crystal spatial light modulators
Brittany Lynn, Pierre-Alexandre Blanche and Nasser Peyghambarian – Photorefractive polymers for holography
Derrick M. Smith, Christopher Y. Li and Timothy J. Bunning – Light-directed mesoscale phase separation via holographic polymerization
James H. Andrews, Michael Crescimanno, Kenneth D. Singer and Eric Baer – Melt-processed polymer multilayer distributed feedback lasers: Progress and prospects
Perspective:
Luciano De Sio and Nelson Tabiryan – Self-aligning liquid crystals in polymer composite systems
Full Papers:
Tindaro Ioppolo and Edoardo Rubino – Magnetic field-induced morphology-dependent resonances of a coupled composite metglas slab with a polymeric optical resonator
Amir R. Ali, Tindaro Ioppolo, Volkan Ötügen, Marc Christensen and Duncan MacFarlane – Photonic electric field sensor based on polymeric microspheres
