Nanostructured Organic/Inorganic Composites as Transparent Materials for Optical Components

It has been found that nanostructured organic/inorganic composites, in which nanometer-sized inorganic inclusions are uniformly dispersed in and fixed to a matrix polymer, can modify the property of the matrix polymer while suppressing Rayleigh scattering to exhibit preferable transparency. Rather, when compared with the transparency of a matrix polymer alone, the composite could exhibit better transparency as the content of inorganic inclusions increases. Furthermore, because the refractive index of the composite agrees well with the Maxwell-Garnett model, it is suggested that synergetic effects obtained by the bulk properties of both the matrix polymer and inorganic inclusions can be exhibited. Such a potential has been verified by applying the composites to optical waveguides and optically athermal materials.