Optical Materials
RESEARCH FACULTY
In optics as in many other areas of science and engineering, advances in materials are driving technological innovations. For instance, the development of low-loss glass in the 1960s and 1970s opened the door to fiber-optic communications. During the same time, advances in semiconductors based on the elements gallium, arsenic, and phosphorus paved the way to the development of light-emitting diodes and solid-state laser diodes.
(Courtesy of R. Dupuis)
Today, the use of these light sources has become ubiquitous and continues to create new applications such as in high-efficiency lighting. Traditional traffic lights based on incandescent light bulbs are being replaced with brighter, more power-efficient, and longer-lasting solid-state light-emitting diodes (LEDs).
(Courtesy of S. Marder and B. Kippelen)
Optical materials are generally divided into several classes: inorganic, organic, and hybrid. Organic materials such as synthetic polymers are mainly comprised of the elements carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. The rich diversity of carbon chemistry enables the synthesis of complex molecules with tailored optical, electronic, and mechanical properties. Fluorescent molecules, for instance, are being used in biological applications. Today's contact lenses are mainly based on flexible, highly transparent plastic materials. Sometimes, optical materials with unique properties can be generated by mixing inorganic materials with organic ones. For instance, hybrid materials based on semiconductor nanoparticles embedded in a semiconducting polymer matrix are being developed for renewable power generation.
In recent years, increased focus has been given to tailoring the optical properties of materials by reducing their dimensions to the nanometer scale. These advances in nanomaterials are key enablers for nanotechnologies.
(Courtesy of J. L. Bredas)
Georgia Tech has one of the strongest programs in the nation on compound semiconductors and is developing tomorrow's light sources. Tech is also home of one of the two centers of excellence for research in photovoltaics. Advances in the processing of inorganic materials like silicon will champion tomorrow's solar cell technologies. Likewise, researchers working on organic and hybrid materials have established one of the premier molecular science and engineering programs. The powerful integration of materials development with the engineering tradition at Tech will create innovations in numerous fields of optics and photonics that will benefit society.
