Electrospun polymer nanofibers as subwavelength optical waveguides incorporating quantum dots

The process of incorporating the semi-conductor quantum dots (QD) as integrated light sources into the polymer fibers to produce subwavelength- diameter optical waveguides was investigated. A suspended inorganic-organic (QD/SU8) heterostructure cylindrical waveguide was fabricated using a one-step electrospinning approach to demonstrate the use of semiconductor QD photoluminescence as an internal light source. It was shown that the subwave-length-sized SU8 nanofiber acted as a waveguiding structure with a length of at least several micrometers. It was found that this technique represents a new platform for integrating waveguide structures with silicon-based microelectronics to realize nanoscale optoelectronic integrated circuit technology.