Development of low-melting glasses containing organic molecules for photoinduced refractive index change

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Transparent materials with a large figure-of-merit(FOM) are strongly required to realize active photonic devices for the optical telecommunication and the photonic information processing. Although organic molecules generally show excellent optical nonlinear properties, their chemical durability is relatively low for the practical applications. In addition, some of inorganic single crystals exhibit enough FOM, but they have difficulty in preparation and fabrication into various forms such as thin film, waveguides, and so on. Inorganic glasses have excellent both the excellent chemical durability and workability. However, their FOM for photonic applications are relatively low. Glasses with low-melting temperatures so-called low melting glasses can be doped with various functional organic molecules. Low-melting glasses presently available usually contain lead or other heavy metal cations, which are unsuitable for environmental protection. In the present study, attempt has been made to develop new family of low-melting glasses capable of doping with optical functional organic molecules. We focused on the development of organic-inorganic hybrid glasses with a large photorefractive index change.Silica related materials with a photorefractive index change exceeding 10^<-3> order have been developed and micro fabricated in planer waveguide by laser direct writing technique. In addition, novel hybrid glass system prepared through non-aqueous acid-base reactions is proposed, which can be doped with various active centers. Now, however, the glasses are just a holder of organic molecules. New materials with synergetic effect of organic molecules and glass host is expected for the further research on the present materials.