Optical Properties of Hybrid Organic–inorganic Materials and their Applications – Part II : Nonlinear Optics and Plasmonics

Abstract

Research on hybrid inorganic–organic materials has experienced an explosive growth since the 1980s, with the expansion of soft inorganic chemistry based processes. Indeed, mild synthetic conditions, low processing temperatures provided by “chimie douce” and the versatility of the colloidal state allow for the mixing of the organic and inorganic components at the nanometer scale in virtually any ratio to produce the so‐called hybrid materials. Today, a high degree of control over both composition and nanostructure of these hybrids can be achieved allowing tunable structure–property relationships. This, in turn, makes it possible to tailor and fine‐tune many properties (mechanical, optical, electronic, thermal, chemical…) in very broad ranges, and to design specific multifunctional systems for applications. In particular, the field of “hybrid‐optics” has been very productive not only scientifically but also in terms of applications. Indeed, numerous optical devices based on hybrids are already in, or very close, to the market. This review describes most of the recent advances performed in this field. Emphasis will be given to luminescent, photochromic, NLO , and plasmonic properties. As an Outlook, we show that the controlled coupling between plasmonics and luminescence is opening a land of opportunities in the field of “hybrids‐optics.”

Optical Properties of Hybrid Organic‐Inorganic Materials and their Applications

“…The strong interest of researchers for the development of devices activated by light, generating light or modulating the optical signal is thus a logical consequence, and is boosted by the technological developments and implementation of the scientific knowledge. This review, extracted from two full book chapters, [528] shows clearly the high level of control reached by the scientists in the architectural achievements of the hybrid systems, in particular in the mastering of the interactions between the organic entities and their inorganic counterparts. This induce consequently a precise tuning of the optical responses of the materials, an increased efficiency and the possibility to integrate them in final operating devices such as Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for screens or lightning, photovoltaics for energy conversion, optical filters in cameras or optical detections for biological entities.…”

Optical Limiting Properties of DNA Biopolymer Doped with Natural Dyes

“…To the best of our knowledge, the OL properties of the DNA-based materials functionalized with natural dyes, have not yet been investigated and represent an innovative The continuous development of this type of device is crucially dependent on the availability of suitable optical materials. A wide variety of materials are being studied to achieve effective OL [11,[14][15][16][17][18]. For example, in many papers, the OL functionality for various groups of materials, including organic dyes, other common organic materials, graphene, and its derivatives, fullerenes, polymeric materials (organic and/or inorganic), inorganic semiconductors, and other materials, has been extensively investigated in recent years [11,[19][20][21][22].…”

Graphene Oxide-Based Silico-Phosphate Composite Films for Optical Limiting of Ultrashort Near-Infrared Laser Pulses

“…A wide variety of organic and inorganic materials are being studied to achieve efficient OL [1][2][3]. Graphene has been identified by many industry sectors as a key material that will drive future product development in flexible electronics, smart textiles, biosensors, drug delivery, water filtration, supercapacitors and more, as stated by the Graphene Report 2020 [4].…”