Research Projects

silicon and silicon-based materials are used for fabricating optical interferometers for signal processing in photonic circuits, which are essential for light-based technologies like spectroscopy, sensing, quantum computing, communication, and photonic integrated circuits. Organic crystalline materials are emerging as an alternative material platform for silicon-based photonic integrated circuits and devices due to their high exciton binding energy, exciton-polariton formation, tunable optical bandgap, linear and non-linear optical functionalities, lightweight, solution/vapor phase processability, and mechanical flexibility. Flexible photonic materials have been at the center of innovation due to their potential applications in photonic circuit construction. The discovery of pseudo-plasticity in elastic microcrystals enabled the fabrication of many proof-of-principle organic PICs on silica substrate using mechanophotonics, an approach known as atomic force microscopy (AFM) tip. This proposal focuses on using organic microcrystal waveguides to construct custom-designed optical interferometers via mechanophotonics. High quantum yield molecular materials with various optical bandwidths, such as perylene, pentacene, 9,10-bis(2-phenylethynyl)anthracene, and 4-nitro-N,N-dimethylaniline, will be used to obtain required microcrystals through solvent-assisted self-assembly or evaporation of mother liquor during crystal growth. The photonic response of interferometers will be investigated using a custom-made confocal optical microscope coupled to different lasers. Developing organic interferometers for photonic applications requires designing, fabricating, and testing diverse optical components with complex functional attributes and understanding the mechanisms through which they operate. The outcome of this project will ascertain India's presence internationally.