Recent material innovations based on hybrid polymers for next generation optical elements and photonics

Novel micro-optical applications, for example in the automotive sector, and the need for new materials for photonic applications, drive the research for further advanced optical materials meeting extended reliability standards in these industries. Optical integrity under long-term operating conditions, especially under sustained thermal and radiational stress becomes increasingly important. For this reason, during the development of new organic-inorganic hybrid polymer materials particular emphasis was placed on the stability of optical properties at elevated temperatures, resulting in novel prototypes with exceptional low yellowing after 1000h at 130°C. At the same time, applications as passive optical elements such as waveguides, require low optical loss materials. Novel waveguide materials named OrmoCoreLL_XP and OrmoCladLL_XP were developed with significantly reduced, material-intrinsic optical losses of 0.05dB/cm at 1310nm and 0.09dB/cm for 1550nm which is an order of magnitude lower than generic hybrid polymer products used up to now for this purpose. Also, these prototypes exhibit excellent reliability under high temperature conditions.