Photosensitivity of titania-doped hybrid polymer prepared by an anhydrous sol-gel process

Xinshi Luo*, Congji Zha, Barry Luther-Davies

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    20 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Methacrylate-modified hybrid polymer with varied TiO2 concentrations was prepared by an anhydrous sol-gel process, and the effects of TiO2 on the photosensitivity of the hybrid polymer in the forms of wet films (before the polymerisation of the unsaturated CC bonds of methacrylate groups) and hard films (after the polymerisation of the unsaturated CC bonds with a pre-UV cross-linking and thermo-curing process) were studied. TiO 2 doping was found useful for enhancing the photosensitive response to UV light irradiation in both wet and hard films. In wet films, TiO 2 has a similar effect as a photo-initiator on accelerating the polymerisation of the unsaturated CC bonds of methacrylate groups, therefore TiO2 doping favours UV-patterning with photolithographic process for planar optical waveguides fabrication. In the fully polymerised TiO 2-doped hard films, photosensitivity with a refractive index increase as large as 0.01 was firstly observed. The structural changes of the hybrid polymer upon UV irradiation were investigated by FT-IR and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopic (EDXS) techniques, and the mechanisms for the photosensitivity in hard films were proposed.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1461-1466
    Number of pages6
    JournalOptical Materials
    Volume27
    Issue number8
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - May 2005

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