Self-assembled fibre optoelectronics with discrete translational symmetry.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 27698454.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/ncomms12807 and PMC identifier 5059452.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Fibres with electronic and photonic properties are essential building blocks for functional fabrics with system level attributes. The scalability of thermal fibre drawing approach offers access to large device quantities, while constraining the devices to be translational symmetric. Lifting this symmetry to create discrete devices in fibres will increase their utility. Here, we draw, from a macroscopic preform, fibres that have three parallel internal non-contacting continuous domains; a semiconducting glass between two conductors. We then heat the fibre and generate a capillary fluid instability, resulting in the selective transformation of the cylindrical semiconducting domain into discrete spheres while keeping the conductive domains unchanged. The cylindrical-to-spherical expansion bridges the continuous conducting domains to create ∼10<sup>4</sup> self-assembled, electrically contacted and entirely packaged discrete spherical devices per metre of fibre. The photodetection and Mie resonance dependent response are measured by illuminating the fibre while connecting its ends to an electrical readout.