Abstract

New micro- and nano-layer polymeric materials have been fabricated by an extrusion method. The materials consist of up to many thousands of layers with a layer thickness down to 30 nm or smaller. The extrusion is a continuous process that yields polymeric photonic materials that are flexible sheets with large surface areas. Polymeric dielectric mirrors that show a good broadband reflectivity over the visible can be fabricated.¹ Here we report nonlinear 1D layered materials that were fabricated by dispersing nonlinear dyes in alternate layers. These new materials have a modulation in the complex nonlinear refractive index in the direction normal to the surface of the layers. There are several potential applications of these nanostructured materials including optical limiting.

© 2001 Optical Society of America