title: Organic printed photonics: From microring lasers to integrated circuits.
abstract: A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is the optical analogy of an electronic loop in which photons are signal carriers with high transport speed and parallel processing capability. Besides the most frequently demonstrated silicon-based circuits, PICs require a variety of materials for light generation, processing, modulation, and detection. With their diversity and flexibility, organic molecular materials provide an alternative platform for photonics; however, the versatile fabrication of organic integrated circuits with the desired photonic performance remains a big challenge. The rapid development of flexible electronics has shown that a solution printing technique has considerable potential for the large-scale fabrication and integration of microsized/nanosized devices. We propose the idea of soft photonics and demonstrate the function-directed fabrication of high-quality organic photonic devices and circuits. We prepared size-tunable and reproducible polymer microring resonators on a wafer-scale transparent and flexible chip using a solution printing technique. The printed optical resonator showed a quality (Q) factor higher than 4 × 10(5), which is comparable to that of silicon-based resonators. The high material compatibility of this printed photonic chip enabled us to realize low-threshold microlasers by doping organic functional molecules into a typical photonic device. On an identical chip, this construction strategy allowed us to design a complex assembly of one-dimensional waveguide and resonator components for light signal filtering and optical storage toward the large-scale on-chip integration of microscopic photonic units. Thus, we have developed a scheme for soft photonic integration that may motivate further studies on organic photonic materials and devices.
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Chuang
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Chang-Ling
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Zou
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Chun-Hua
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Cong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Hanlin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yunqi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Quantum Information, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui, China.
authors.forename: Guang-Can
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Jiannian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yao
authors.affiliation: Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Yong Sheng
authors.initials: YS
authors.lastname: Zhao
keywords: Flexible device; Molecular Electronics; Molecular photonics; Organic laser; Organic nanomaterial; Organic nanophotonics; Photonic material; Printed Photonics; soft material