Self-Inscribed Waveguide Arrays In Soft Photopolymers: From Dynamic Lenses To Materials That Compute With Light Filaments

Abstract

Nonlinear optical processes have been used for many years to cause light to behave in unique ways. These can influence various aspects of the light beams, including the spatial intensity profile. More specifically, a naturally divergent beam can maintain its initial beam profile when propagating through a nonlinear medium due to the increased refractive index causing focusing. This process is called self-trapping and can be elicited for both coherent and incoherent light in a number of nonlinear media. Analogous to this, modulation instability (MI) is a nonlinear process that causes a broad beam of light of break up into a large population of self-trapped filaments. When these processes occur in photopolymers, light guiding structures are inscribed within the material and persist even after the light is removed. Our group has previously studied the behaviour and interactions of light undergoing self-trapping and MI in photopolymer systems. The studies presented in this thesis show novel interactions between multiple incoherent beams undergoing MI, utilization of these interactions, as well as the development of new polymeric systems capable of inducing MI. The filaments produced when orthogonal beams underwent simultaneous MI would align with themselves, forming highly ordered structures within the material. These interactions were used as the basis of an encoding and computing system based on the specific ordering of the resulting filaments. The mechanical properties of the resulting polymers were improved and tuned by developing a long-chain organosiloxane based system. The embedded waveguide structures are capable of guiding light when significantly deformed and restore to their initial parameters. A hydrogel system was also developed that was capable of producing self-trapping and MI with incoherent light. The samples were tested with biological systems and were also used to produce dynamic lens samples with enhanced angle of view.