Refractive Index Engineering of Nano-Polymer Composites

ABSTRACTHighly homogeneous nanoparticles-polymer composite materials are being developed to meet high demands of photonic materials covering a broad range of the refractive index. Refractive index engineering can be achieved by controlling loading level of metal-oxide nanoparticles within an organic host material. The uniformity and small size of nanoparticles are critical to maintain a low level of light scattering, particularly in the visible to infrared regions. First observations of index variation for these nanoparticle-polymer composites to our knowledge are presented.