Laser Chemistry 
Volume 2008 (2008), Article ID 493059, 7 pages
doi:10.1155/2008/493059
Research Article

Two-Photon Polymerization of Hybrid Sol-Gel Materials for Photonics Applications

A. Ovsianikov,1 A. Gaidukeviciute,1 B. N. Chichkov,1 M. Oubaha,2 B. D. MacCraith,2 I. Sakellari,3,4 A. Giakoumaki,3,5 D. Gray,3 M. Vamvakaki,3,5 M. Farsari,3 and C. Fotakis3,4

 1The Laser Zentrum Hannover e.V., 30419 Hannover, Germany
2The Optical Sensors Laboratory, National Centre for Sensor Research, Dublin City University, Dublin 9, Ireland
3Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas, P.O. Box 1527, 711 10 Heraklion, Greece
4Department of Physics, University of Crete, 71003 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
5Department of Materials Science and Technology, University of Crete, 710 03 Heraklion, Crete, Greece
Received 24 April 2008; Accepted 12 July 2008

Recommended by Saulius Juodkazis

Abstract

Two-photon polymerization of photosensitive materials has emerged as a very promising technique for the fabrication of photonic crystals and devices. We present our investigations into the structuring by two-photon polymerization of a new class of photosensitive sol-gel composites exhibiting ultra-low shrinkage. We particularly focus on two composites, the first containing a zirconium alkoxide and the second a nonlinear optical chromophore. The three-dimensional photonic crystal structures fabricated using these materials demonstrate high resolution and clear bandstops in the near IR region.