Enhanced quantum dot optical down-conversion

using asymmetric 2D photonic crystals

Fuchyi Yang* and Brian T. Cunningham
Nano Sensors Group, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,
Micro and Nanotechnology Laboratory, 208 N Wright St, Urbana, Illinois 61801, USA
*[email protected]

Abstract: Asymmetric 2D photonic crystals were fabricated using polymer

embedded PbS quantum dots on plastic substrates for enhancing optical
down conversion efficiency from blue to near infrared wavelengths through
enhanced extraction and excitation effects. We demonstrate 8x
improvement of QD emission at normal incidence extraction from enhanced
extraction and 2.5x improvement in power conversion efficiency from
enhanced excitation.
2011 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (050.5298) Photonic crystals; (220.4241) Nanostructure fabrication

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#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
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1. Introduction
Colloidal semiconductor quantum dots (QD) are solution processed nanometer sized particles
[1]. Due to the quantum confinement effect of the electronic wave function, QD exhibit
discrete electron energy levels which lead to narrow absorption and emission bands which are
blue shifted from their bulk counterparts. Varying the size and materials of the QD enables
tuning of the emission and absorption wavelengths from the ultraviolet (UV) to the near
infrared (NIR). QD are now routinely incorporated into a broad range of photonic emitters and
detectors including photoconductors [2,3], solar cells [4,5], LEDs [6,7], and video displays
[8,9] for their unique optical properties. Engineering the emission characteristics of QD would
enhance the performance of these photonic devices and potentially enable new applications.
Moreover, colloidal QD are synthesized in solution in large quantities, which make them an
ideal choice as light emitters for incorporation into large area photonic devices through either
spincoating or printing. Photonic crystals (PC) have been demonstrated to allow versatile
control over optical properties of QD. Increasing the radiative emission rate [10], modifying
the angular and spectral emission distribution [11,12], and enhancing the emission intensity
[1215]from QD have been shown. This work presents a PC enabled enhancement of optical
down conversion through enhanced excitation of = 450 nm light and enhanced extraction of
NIR light in the = 800-900 nm range. Nanoreplica molding, which is compatible with large
area and flexible substrates, is used to fabricate the PC devices on plastic substrates [16,17].
The ability to make devices on flexible substrates extends the potential applications over
traditional fabrication methods such as photolithography and electron beam lithography.
Additionally, nanoreplica molding has been incorporated into a roll-to-roll large scale
manufacturing process of optical biosensors [18]. The PC devices discussed in this work
could potentially be used as efficient NIR light sources through incorporation into a LED
which is used for optical pumping of the QD layer. In addition, potential large area
applications include NIR planar lighting and NIR displays by incorporating a large area PC
with a backlight as an optical pump. The ability to fabricate flexible and lightweight NIR light
sources improves portability and their incorporation onto non-planar surfaces.
A 2D asymmetric PC was designed and fabricated in order to modify the emission
characteristics of colloidal lead sulfide (PbS) QD interacting with the PC environment. The
PC was used to engineer the optical dispersion and spatial profile of optical modes supported
within the PC structure through design of the PC period, modulation depth, duty cycle, and
refractive index (RI). Moreover, optical modes which exist above the light line are leaky
modes due to the fact that they can be coupled into and out of the PC through free space
propagating waves enabled by phase matching through the PC. This coupling is strictly
determined by the wavelength and incident/emission angle of the incoming/outgoing light
[13]. In essence, the PC behaves as an optical antenna which redirects emitted light in a
controlled direction. Therefore, it is possible to engineer the PC to efficiently extract light at
desired wavelengths and emission angles. In addition, light of a particular wavelength and
incident angle can be resonantly coupled into the PC structure in order to excite a PC mode
with an electric field intensity much higher than the incident field. 1D PC and symmetric 2D
PC are limited in the achievable wavelength separation of their leaky modes. In order to
design a PC with simultaneous leaky modes at = 450 nm and = 800-900 nm, an
asymmetric 2D PC design was chosen. Through the enhanced extraction and enhanced

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3909
excitation effects, a 2D asymmetric PC with embedded PbS QD demonstrated enhanced
efficiency of optical down conversion from the blue to NIR wavelengths.
2. Design
The 2D surface PC is designed asymmetrically such that the period of RI modulation differs
in orthogonal directions. This design produces a 2D surface PC that behaves as two combined
1D surface PCs. The 2D surface PC design, shown in Fig. 1, is comprised of a 2D rectangular
lattice of holes that are d = 130 nm deep. One direction of the surface PC has a period of 2 =
220 nm with 50% duty cycle while the orthogonal direction has a period of 1 = 520 nm with
60% duty cycle. A high RI region, with thickness t = 100 nm, is surrounded by lower RI
regions in order to support guided PC modes. The optical properties of the device are
simulated using rigorous coupled wave analysis (DiffractMod, RSOFT) which provides
solutions to Maxwells equations for periodic structures. The simulation region is a single
period of the PC structure with periodic boundary conditions in both x and y directions. The
PC is a three layer structure with a high RI layer surrounded above and below by two low RI
layers. A thermoplastic polymer was used as the low RI layer while the high RI layer was
simulated as titanium dioxide (TiO2). In order to take into account the material dispersion, the
simulation was run with different RI values at = 450 nm and = 800-900 nm. The RI values
were obtained from measurements of thin film samples of the corresponding materials using a
variable angle spectroscopic spectrometer (J. A. Woollam). As mentioned above, leaky modes
of the PC are coupled through free space incident light. It is known that this phenomena
results in resonant reflection peaks in the reflection spectrum of the incident light through the
guided mode resonance effect [19,20]. Moreover, varying the angle of incident light allows
coupling to leaky modes of varying propagation constants through phase matching from the
PC. As a result, the PC band diagram is obtained through measurement of the reflection of the
PC as a function of both incident angle and wavelength. Additionally, the leaky modes
polarization is dependent on the polarization of the coupled incident light.
It is possible to design a 2D asymmetric surface PC to engineer modes with wide
wavelength separation in order to enhance optical down conversion from the blue to NIR
wavelengths. In the PC band diagram shown in Fig. 2(b), both TE and TM modes are present
in the NIR wavelength range of = 800-900 nm which spectrally overlap with the NIR
emission of the PbS QD. Thus, this provides enhanced extraction of emitted light from QD
through coupling of the PC mode to free space. Additionally, as seen in Fig. 2(a), PC modes
are also obtained at = 450 nm which spectrally overlap with the blue wavelength pump light,
providing enhanced excitation through resonant coupling of the excitation light into the PC
mode.

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
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 Fig. 1. Top and side cross section schematic view of the 2D asymmetric photonic crystal. The
period is 1 = 520 nm in x direction and 2 = 220 nm in y direction. Modulation depth is d =
130 nm and TiO2 thickness is 100 nm.

The simulated electric field mode profiles of the TE mode at = 888 nm and TM mode at
= 848 nm are shown in Fig. 3(a) and Fig. 3(b), respectively. The white rectangular regions
depict the high RI TiO2 material. In this simulation, the QD are located in the polymer. Due to
the boundary conditions of continuous dielectric displacement, the TM mode has higher
electric field intensity concentrated in the low RI regions as compared to the TE mode.
Additionally, the TM mode has electric field components in both x (not shown) and z
directions, while the TE mode only has electric field components in the y direction.

Fig. 2. RWCA simulation results of the PC leaky mode band diagram at (a) excitation
wavelength range and (b) extraction wavelength range.

The PC mode at = 850 nm does not interact with the 2 = 220 nm PC since the feature
sizes are much smaller the wavelength of the light. However, the PC mode at = 450 nm does
interact with the 1 = 520 nm PC since the feature sizes are larger than the wavelength of the
light. This interaction causes diffraction from the 1 = 520 nm PC which reduces the coupling
efficiency which was confirmed by simulation results. This effect can be minimized by
varying the duty cycle of the 1 = 520 nm PC to the optimal value of 60% resulting in a
maximum reflection efficiency of 80% for the PC mode at = 450 nm. Maximizing this value
is critical in obtaining the highest intensity electric field for enhanced excitation.

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
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 Fig. 3. RWCA simulations of (a) TE mode y-polarized electric field at = 888 nm and (b) TM
mode z-polarized electric field at = 848 nm.

3. Fabrication
The fabrication process employs nanoreplica molding which allows room temperature, low
cost, and large area fabrication on plastic substrates. The process flow diagram is depicted in
Fig. 4. First, a 2D surface PC structure was nanoreplica molded from a master wafer onto a
polyethylene terephthalate (PET) substrate. The master is a 2-inch diameter silicon wafer
upon which a 2D surface PC structure with a period of 1 = 520 nm and 50% duty cycle and
2 = 220 nm and a 60% duty cycle is patterned by electron beam lithography over a 2x2 mm 2
area. The 2D surface PC pattern is etched into the silicon wafer to a depth of d = 130 nm by
reactive ion etching. The completed master wafer is composed of a rectangular lattice of
rectangular posts. Figure 5(a) shows an SEM of the silicon master. The 2D surface PC is
nanoreplica molded from a thermoplastic embedded with QD. 10 mg of the thermoplastic
(Tetramer NDM, Tetramer Tech.) is dissolved in 100L of the organic solvent, mesitylene,
while the PbS QD (Evident Tech.) are in a toluene solution of 10mg/mL concentration. 100
L thermoplastic solution and 400 L QD solution are mixed to obtain a mass ratio of
QD/thermoplastic of 2/5. The mixture is placed in a desiccator in order to evaporate the
solvent until 100 L remains. This solution of thermoplastic/QD is spin-coated onto the
silicon master wafer at 3000 rpm for 30 seconds. A thin film of approximately 4 m of the
thermoplastic forms on the silicon master wafer and conforms to the 2D surface PC structure.
The silicon master is then placed on a hotplate at 110C for 120 seconds in order to evaporate
any remaining solvent. The nanoreplica mold of the PC structure is then transfer printed onto
a flexible PET substrate. In order to transfer the PC structure from the silicon master, a layer
of liquid ultraviolet curable polymer (UVCP) was drop coated over the thermoplastic/QD
film. A PET substrate is then placed over the master wafer and brought into contact using
mechanical pressure from a rolling cylinder. This enabled the UVCP drops to form a thin
continuous layer between the PET and the thermoplastic/QD thin film. Next, the UVCP is
cured for 90 seconds using a high intensity UV lamp (Xenon Corp.). The PET substrate, along
with the UVCP layer and thermoplastic/QD thin film, is released from the silicon master and
the thin film of thermoplastic/QD with the 2D surface PC nanoreplica mold is fabricated.
Figure 5(b) shows an SEM image of the nanoreplica mold. In order to produce a surface PC
that supports optical modes, a high RI thin film must be deposited over the low RI (n = 1.56)
replica-molded grating structure. Sputter-deposited thin films of approximately t = 110 nm of
TiO2, with a RI of n = 2.59 at = 450 nm and n = 2.32 at = 850 nm, served as the high RI
layer. Next, an additional film of thermoplastic/QD is spincoated over the TiO 2 layer in order
to complete the device structure. After spincoating, the device is baked in an oven at 90C for
15 minutes to evaporate any remaining solvents. Even though this work used a 2x2 mm 2
patterned area for proof of concept, the fabrication area is limited only by the size of the
silicon master. Previous work using nanoreplica molding used an 8 inch diameter silicon
master wafer to fabricate large area PC devices [16].

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
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 Fig. 4. Process flow diagram of nanoreplica molding process of 2D photonic crystal.

Fig. 5. SEM images of (a) silicon master from step (1) of Fig. 4 and (b) photonic crystal
nanoreplica mold from step (4) of Fig. 4. No defects seen in SEM image of nanoreplica mold,
and photonic crystal dimensions are well preserved from nanoreplica molding.

4. Enhanced extraction
The angle resolved fluorescence setup shown in Fig. 6 is used to characterize the emission
properties of the PC device. A continuous wave (CW) laser source at = 457 nm is used to
optically pump the QD. The PC device is mounted on an adjustable tilt mount that can rotate
in order to adjust the incident angle between the PC and the excitation laser beam. A fiber
optic cable connected to a collimating lens is attached to an optics rail that is allowed to rotate
around the mount holding the PC device. The light emitted from the QD is collected at
different extraction angles relative to the PC surface normal. The collimating lens is adjusted
relative to the optical fiber end such that only light which is incoming at normal incidence is
coupled into the fiber. This enabled the collection optics to have good angular resolution for
observing emission of the QD. A high pass filter is placed in front of the collimating lens in
order to filter out the excitation light at = 457 nm. The other end of the optical fiber is
connected to a spectrometer (USB2000, Ocean Optics) and the emission spectrum is observed
using the accompanying software (001Base, Ocean Optics). Using angle resolved
fluorescence, the enhanced extraction effect is measured by setting the excitation angle
constant at an off resonant value while varying the extraction angle from 0 to 10 degrees in
0.5 degree increments.

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3913
 Fig. 6. Angle resolved fluorescence setup used to characterize the emission properties of QD in
the PC device. The excitation angle and the extraction angle are both adjustable. Enhanced
extraction experiment is performed by varying the extraction angle while keeping the
excitation angle constant. Enhanced excitation experiment is performed by varying the
excitation angle while keeping the extraction angle constant.

The photonic band diagram of the 2D PC can be experimentally obtained by acquiring the
transmission spectrum at different incident angles and compiling the data to form a plot of the
transmission as a function of both wavelength and angle. The optical transmission setup
comprises a broadband tungsten-halogen lamp which is coupled to an optical fiber connected
to a collimator. The light is incident on the PC, and the transmitted light is collected through
another optical fiber coupled to a spectrometer (Ocean Optics USB2000). The PC is held on a
rotation mount which enabled characterization of the transmission spectrum at varying
incident angles. Using unpolarized light, the photonic band diagram for the PC is obtained and
depicted in Fig. 7(a). Two offset X shaped features are seen in the photonic band diagram.
The band labeled i is a wide full width half maximum (FWHM) TE band that is resonant at
= 900 nm at normal incidence. Likewise, the band labeled ii is a narrow FWHM TM band that
is resonant at = 860 nm at normal incidence. These are the leaky modes allowed by the
surface PC. The experimental band diagram is red shifted by approximately = 12 nm
compared to the simulated band diagram in Fig. 2(a). This is due to slight differences between
the simulated and fabricated structures due to fabrication variations. In addition, the RI
dispersion of the materials comprising the PC was not taken into account, within the range of
= 820 920 nm, in the simulation. However, even with the simplified simulated PC
structure, the experimental and simulated results agreed quite well, qualitatively. The
polarization dependence of the TE and TM bands was confirmed by placing linear polarizers
in front of the collection optical fiber. The two bands could distinguished by a 90 rotation of
the linear polarizer. When there is spatial and spectral overlap, the QD emission is
preferentially coupled to these surface PC modes and the photons are coupled out of the
surface PC to free space at the appropriate extraction angles which satisfy the phase matching
condition. This is observed in the angle resolved emission measurements shown in Fig. 7(b).
The emission intensity from the QD is much stronger along the bands of the surface PC due to
this enhanced extraction effect.
The emission is strongest when the surface PC mode spectrally overlaps the emission peak
of the QD at = 860 nm and decreases for wavelengths away from this value. In fact, the
emission is much lower at wavelengths above = 900 nm and below = 800 nm. This is due
to the poor spectral overlap between the QD emission spectrum and the PC optical modes
outside this wavelength range. Additionally, the enhanced extraction effect is stronger for the
TM band than the TE band. The TM mode has better spatial overlap with the low RI regions
(thermoplastic/QD layers) of the PC where the QD are located, as shown in the simulations

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3914
results in Fig. 3(b). Thus, this improves the coupling of photons into the TM leaky modes, and
point to the TM modes having higher extraction enhancement than the TE modes.

Fig. 7. (a) Experimental photonic band diagram for the PC device and (b) the corresponding
angle resolved emission spectrum of QD in the PC device.

At normal incidence, the emission spectrum of QD within the surface PC (red curve) and
QD with no surface PC (blue curve) are compared and shown in Fig. 8. The two shorter
wavelength emission peaks correspond to extraction due to outcoupling from TM modes,
while the longest wavelength emission peak corresponds to extraction enhancement due to
outcoupling from a TE mode. At these wavelengths and normal incidence emission, the
enhanced extraction effect is clearly seen over QD with no surface PC. At = 865 nm, the
enhancement is ~8x relative to an adjacent QD/polymer coated surface with no PC pattern.

Fig. 8. Emission from QD at normal incidence extraction angle for QD in the PC device (red)
and QD with no PC (blue). The enhanced extraction is about eight times at the emission peak
of = 865 nm.

Angle resolved emission measurements are obtained for QD with no surface PC and
compared to QD within a surface PC. The emission spectrum for QD with no surface PC
shows no enhanced extraction effect and no variation in emission peak intensity as a function
of angle. The QD within the surface PC show clear modifications in their emission
characteristics in comparison. This effect is useful for controlling the emission angle of a
narrow band of wavelengths in order to achieve better coupling or collection efficiency to
other optical elements.

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3915
5. Enhanced excitation
Angle resolved emission measurements were also used to characterize the enhanced excitation
effect of the PC. This was accomplished by observing the emission from the QD at a fixed
extraction angle normal to the PC surface while varying the excitation angle . At a certain
excitation angle, the pump light is able to couple into a PC mode through phase matching
enabled by the PC. This results in enhanced electric fields relative to the pump light which
increases the absorption rate of the QD. Consequently, the emission intensity is enhanced.
Thus, at this resonant excitation angle, the QD emission intensity is at maximum. Figure 9
shows the transmission spectrum of a PC at 5.5 incident angle, along with the emission
spectrum of the pump laser. There is good spectral overlap between the PC resonance and the
pump light. Additionally, the polarization of the PC mode matches the polarization of the
pump light which is critical for coupling. The measured resonance transmission efficiency is
47% as observed using the broadband transmission setup. Using a silicon photodetector to
measure the transmitted power of the pump laser at different excitation angles result in a
measured transmission efficiency of 40%. This discrepancy is most likely due to the limited
resolution of the spectrometer.
The resolved emission intensity at normal incidence was observed as a function of
excitation angle, and the maximum fluorescence intensity at = 856 nm was plotted as a
function of the excitation angle. From Fig. 10, the enhanced excitation effect is shown to
increase the fluorescence intensity 1.5x for the measured PC. Even though this demonstrates
enhanced excitation, the enhancement value is limited by the coupling efficiency of the PC
mode. The enhanced electric fields enabled through coupling to the PC mode are lowered due
to multiple optical loss mechanisms. Currently, the transmission efficiency is 40% resulting in
low enhancement values. Improving the transmission efficiency at the resonant wavelength,
i.e. reducing the transmission value towards 0%, will result in higher excitation enhancement
values. The main loss mechanisms are absorption from the QD and polymer and scattering
from the PC. Since the excitation light at wavelength = 457 nm is able to interact with the
= 550 nm period PC, this results in scattering and introduces loss to the PC mode. Thus, the
efficiency is reduced resulting in lowered electric fields and a lower Q factor. Improving on
the PC design to reduce this scattering loss will lead to higher excitation enhancement values.

Fig. 9. Transmission spectrum of the PC device at 5.5 degrees oblique incidence overlaid with
the emission laser of the excitation laser. Good spectral overlap is observed at = 457nm at
this excitation angle which satisfies the enhanced excitation condition.

The conversion efficiency of the QD embedded PC was measured using an integrating

sphere. The conversion efficiency is defined as the input power of the laser divided by the
output power of the QD. This was measured using a silicon photodetector. The excitation

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3916
laser power was measured directly without the integrating sphere. The PC was placed directly
in front of an input port of the integrating sphere and pumped using the excitation laser. An
emission filter is placed in front of the photodetector and the QD emission was measured from
the output port of the integrating sphere. This measured power was then converted into total
power by taking into account the area ratio between the integrating sphere and the output port
and also the fact that only half of the QD emission is directed into the integrating sphere while
the other half is directed away.

Fig. 10. Peak emission fluorescence intensity for = 856 nm at normal incidence extraction
angle for varying excitation angle. An increase in fluorescence intensity is observed at the
resonant excitation angle condition.

The measured conversion efficiency is comparable between QD embedded in a PC and

QD embedded in non-structured polymer when enhanced excitation is absent. The enhanced
extraction effect couples light into preferential directions and does not increase the
spontaneous emission rate of the QD. Therefore, no increase in emission power is expected.
Re-absorption effects might result in decreased emission power in the PC device compared to
non structured polymer due to increased interaction time for the output light that couples to
leaky modes for enhanced extraction. However, this was not seen in the experimental results
indicating that re-absorption effects are negligible for this PC device. Typical conversion
efficiencies for QD in non-structured polymer were around 10%. A non-reversible
degradation in the conversion efficiency of PC devices was observed after being optically
pumped over time. This was due to a non-reversible decrease in the emission intensity of the
PbS QD over time, which is a characteristic of the QD and not a result of the PC design [21].
The conversion efficiency of the PC device was measured as a function of excitation angle. At
non resonant excitation angle, the measured conversion efficiency was around 10% and
comparable to QD in non-structured polymer. At the resonant excitation angle, enhanced
excitation occurred, and the QD embedded in the PC increase in emission power due to
increased absorption rate of the excitation light. An accompanying increase in conversion
efficiency occurred. At the resonant angle, the enhanced excitation effect improved the
conversion efficiency approximately 2.5x, from 10% to 25%, for QD embedded in PC
compared to QD embedded in non-structured polymer layer as shown in Fig. 11. The
differences in enhanced excitation values between Figs. 10 and 11 are due to Fig. 10 reporting
enhancement values at a single wavelength while Fig. 11 is a result of enhanced excitation
integrated over all wavelengths emitted by the QD. Also, different devices were used in each
experiment with varying performance due to fabrication variations and device degradation
over the course of experiment trials. In each case, however, the effect of enhanced excitation
is evident.

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3917
 Fig. 11. Power conversion efficiency measured using an integrating sphere and at varying
excitation angles. The PC improves the conversion efficiency over 2.5x through the enhanced
excitation effect.

6. Conclusion
We demonstrated the design, fabrication, and characterization of a 2D asymmetric PC
engineered to improve the conversion efficiency of optical down conversion of PbS QD from
the blue to NIR wavelengths. Using a nanoreplica molding process that can potentially scale
up to large areas and flexible substrates, we fabricated PC with embedded QD. Both enhanced
extraction and enhanced excitation effects were simultaneously possible at wide wavelength
separation due to the 2D asymmetric PC design. Coupling to leaky modes of the PC, enabled
enhanced extraction effect that preferentially coupled QD emission light out of the PC into
controlled directions. This is important for directing light to other optical elements.
Furthermore, the enhanced excitation effect was observed when the excitation light was at a
resonant condition. This increased the emission intensity and improved the conversion
efficiency in comparison to QD embedded in non-structured polymer.
Acknowledgments
The research was supported by BAE Systems IRAD under project manager James M. Ortolf,
and the authors acknowledge James M. Ortolf for many helpful discussions.

#139110 - $15.00 USD Received 3 Dec 2010; revised 3 Feb 2011; accepted 9 Feb 2011; published 14 Feb 2011
(C) 2011 OSA 28 February 2011 / Vol. 19, No. 5/ OPTICS EXPRESS 3918