In the last decade, photonics has emerged as a major interdisciplinary field of science and technology with a focus on the transport and manipulation of light. Rapid progress in photonics has been achieved because of continuous advances in nanotechnologies, materials science, optics, physics, and the rapid development of microfabrication techniques. In particular, interaction of light with materials possessing a periodic modulation in their structure has led to a range of interesting and sometimes unique effects, which have shown promising applications in the production of Bragg mirrors, switches, filters, superprisms, waveguides, and optical resonators. Polymers play an important role in the development of materials for photonics. Polymers are relatively inexpensive, can be functionalized to achieve required optical, electronic, or mechanical properties, and have demonstrated compatibility with various patterning methods. Polymers can be used as materials for photonic applications in several ways. First, polymers in themselves can possess useful optical properties such as electroluminescence, photoluminescence, or nonlinear optical properties 1 . Second, polymers can act as matrices for optically active species, e.g. for dyes, liquid crystals (LCs), quantum dots, or metal nanoparticles 2 . Third, polymers possessing topographic and/or compositional patterns can coherently scatter light 3 . Finally, polymer templates are routinely used for producing photonic materials 4 . We highlight recent research efforts, challenges, and opportunities in the development of polymer nanostructured materials for applications in photonics and optical data storage. The review is limited
We review recent progress in the development of polymer nanostructured materials with periodic structures and compositions having applications in photonics and optical data storage. This review provides a brief description of the microfabrication and selfassembly methods used for the production of polymer materials with periodic structures, and highlights the properties and applications of photonic materials derived from block copolymers, colloid crystals, and microfabricated polymers. We conclude with a summary of current and future research efforts and opportunities in the development of polymer materials for photonic applications.