Organic-inorganic optical materials

We describe the use of an intriguing class of materials, termed polycerams, for applications in integrated optics. Polycerams are ceramic–polymer hybrid materials that are synthesized by wet-chemical methods. As films they can be deposited in single-step operations with thicknesses from <100 nm to >5 μm, and their refractive indices and Abbe numbers can be varied over a wide range. Polycerams synthesized as planar waveguides exhibit optical attenuations as low as <0.15 dB/cm, and they can be patterned by embossing. These materials exhibit exceptional optical properties that are due to combination of organic and inorganic constituents at the molecular level.