Regular Article

Optical nanocomposites containing low refractive index MgF₂ nanoparticles

¹ Technical University of Applied Sciences Wildau, Hochschulring 1, Wildau D-15745, Germany
² Fraunhofer-Institute for Applied Polymer Research Research Division Polymeric Materials and Composites PYCO, Schmiedestraße 5 15745 Wildau, Germany
³ Nanofluor GmbH, Research & Development, Rudower Chaussee 29, Berlin D-12489, Germany
⁴ Chemistry Department, Humboldt University, Brook-Taylor-Str. 2, Berlin D-12489, Germany

^* e-mail: leonid.goldenberg@th-wildau.de; christian.dreyer@iap.fraunhofer.de

Received: 21 September 2020
Received in final form: 5 March 2021
Accepted: 24 March 2021
Published online: 6 May 2021

Abstract

Nanoparticles composed of magnesium fluoride were successfully introduced into polymer matrices used for the fabrication of planar optical waveguides. Optical layers without visible scattering were successfully prepared. The transparent nanocomposites were formulated by direct mixing of modified MgF₂ nanoparticles with fluorinated co-polymer matrix or acrylate monomer mixture with a help of additional solvent. An addition of MgF₂ nanoparticles results in decrease of refractive index and thermo-optic coefficient of the polymer but increases substantially the optical propagation losses for planar waveguide at 1547 nm.