Optical properties of conducting polymers in nano-scale periodic structure, microcavities and photonic crystals

Properties of conducting polymers such as photoluminescence (PL) and electr oluminescence (EL) depend on the molecular structure of the main chain and also substituents which influences on dimensionality, effective conjugation length and therefore electronic energy schemes and dynamics of excitons. C onducting polymers in nano-scale periodic structures such as multilayers, m icrocavities and photonic crystals exhibit novel optical characteristics su ch as unique EL and PL characteristics. Spectral narrowing of PL and lasing with low threshold of excitation intensity have been observed in conductin g polymer films in microcavities and also in photonic crystals, synthetic o pals with periodicity of several hundreds nano-meter, infiltrated with cond ucting polymers. Lasing characteristics in synthetic opals are found to be dependent on the periodicity of opals and also refractive index of the solv ent used for infiltration. Polymer replica of synthetic opals with periodic structures also exhibits novel electrical and optical characteristics.