Polymer materials that have been demonstrated possess different structures, and their properties vary significantly in the aspects of optical properties and thermal stabilities, and most materials are not environment friendly. Thus, ¡§green¡¨ photonic solutions with good optical properties merit further investigation.
DNA-based biopolymer materials possess unique properties that no other commonly used polymers have, such as very high conductivity (three to five orders of magnitude), low optical loss over a broad wavelength, high thermal stability up to a temperature of 230¢XC, and its double-helical structure is maintained to temperatures in excess of 100¢XC. These fundamental properties are very attractive when compared to other common polymers; and in certain aspects, even to some common semiconductor materials, such as silicon and gallium arsenide. In addition, DNA is nonfossil-fuel-based, a ¡§green¡¨ product derived from waste, biodegradable, abundant, replenishable, and inexpensive.
We have expanded our expertise to DNA-based biopolymer; synthesizing and studying the properties of this material. When natural DNA is synthesized into a thin-film biopolymer through reactions with surfactants, the DNA-CTMA (cetyltrimethylammonium) material possesses interesting electrical and optical properties, and can be used to create novel and better performance electronic and photonic devices. A multi-step and reactive ion etching process has been developed to fabricate optical DNA-CTMA channel waveguides and devices.
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Fabrication processes of DNA-CTMA biopolymer channel waveguides
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Images of a DNA-CTMA biopolymer channel waveguide. (a) AFM image; (b) SEM image.
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