Multi-material Optoelectronic Fiber Devices

The recent ability to integrate materials with different optical and optoelectronic properties in prescribed architectures within flexible fibers is enabling novel opportunities for advanced optical probes, functional surfaces and smart textiles. In particular, the thermal drawing process has known a series of breakthroughs in recent years that have expanded the range of materials and architectures that can be engineered within uniform fibers. Of particular interest in this presentation will be optoelectronic fibers that integrate semiconductors electrically addressed by conducting materials. These long, thin and flexible fibers can intercept optical radiation, localize and inform on a beam direction, detect its wavelength and even harness its energy. They hence constitute ideal candidates for applications such as remote and distributed sensing, large-area optical-detection arrays, energy harvesting and storage, innovative health care solutions, and functional fabrics. To improve performance and device complexity, tremendous progresses have been made in terms of the integrated semiconductor architectures, evolving from large fiber solid-core, to sub-hundred nanometer thin-films, nano-filaments and even nanospheres. To bridge the gap between the optoelectronic fiber concept and practical applications however, we still need to improve device performance and integration. In this presentation we will describe the materials and processing approaches to realize optoelectronic fibers, as well as give a few examples of demonstrated systems for imaging as well as light and chemical sensing. We will then discuss paths towards practical applications focusing on two main points: fiber connectivity, and improving the semiconductor microstructure by developing scalable approaches to make fiber-integrated single-crystal nanowire based devices.