Photonic Microrods Composed of Photoswitchable Molecules: Erasable Heterostructure Waveguides for Tunable Optical Modulation

A solid-state photochemical strategy to create erasable modulators or optical delay lines within photoresponsive organic microrod waveguides is demonstrated. This photoresponsive waveguide propagates visible light without a delay in its molecular open state. In the closed state, the waveguide absorbs visible light energy and converts itself to an open state, thus, during the process, delaying the light propagation time and acting as an intensity modulator. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.