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Spectroscopic studies on self-assembled organic nano structures

Ken Takazawa
Nano Photonics Group


Mission

We fabricate nanostructures with various shapes, such as a fiber and a ring, by using self-assembly of organic dye molecules. The optical properties of the nanostructures are investigated by utilizing microscopy techniques and high magnetic fields, aiming at optical device applications of the nanostructures.

We fabricated molecular fibers that function as optical waveguides by self-assembly of thiacyanine dye in an aqueous solution. The fibers guide their fluorescence over 250 mm with low loss (Fig. 1). We also fabricated waveguiding molecular rings by self-assembly of thiacyanine on a substrate (Fig. 2).

Fig. 1 Waveguding molecular fiber self-assembled from organic dye molecules. a) Wide-field illumination) Point-like laser excitation. Fig. 2 Waveguding molecular rings self-assembled from organic dye molecules.

Technical Characteristic

The waveguiding molecular fiber self-assembled from thiacyanine dye is highly flexible and guides the fluorescence along a sharp bend with low loss. The fiber is promising as a building block of integrated photonic circuits.