Polymer-based photonic crystals

In this report, we highlight the development of polymers as 1D photonic crystals and subsequently place special emphasis on the activities in self-assembled block copolymers as a promising platform material for new photonic crystals. We review recent progress, including the use of plasticizer and homopolymer blends of diblock copolymers to increase periodicity and the role of the self-assembly in producing 2D and 3D photonic crystals. The employment of the inorganic nanoparticles to increase the dielectric contrast and the application of a biasing field during self-assembly to control the long-range domain order and orientation are examined, as well as in-situ tunable materials via a mechanochromic materials system. Finally, the inherent optical anisotropy of extruded polymer films and side-chain liquid-crystals-line polymer is shown to provide greater degrees of freedom for further novel optical designs.