Single MoO₃ nanoribbon waveguides: Good building blocks as elements and interconnects for nanophotonic applications

Exploring new nanowaveguide materials and structures is of great scientific interest and technological significance for optical and photonic applications. In this work, high-quality single-crystal MoO 3 nanoribbons (NRs) are synthesized and used for optical guiding. External light sources are efficiently launched into the single MoO 3 NRs using silica fiber tapers. It is found that single MoO 3 NRs are as good nanowaveguides with loss optical losses (typically less than 0.1 dB/1/4m) and broadband optical guiding in the visible/near-infrared region. Single MoO 3 NRs have good Raman gains that are comparable to those of semiconductor nanowaveguides, but the second harmonic generation efficiencies are about 4 orders less than those of semiconductor nanowaveguides. And also no any third-order nonlinear optical effects are observed at high pump power. A hybrid Fabry-Pérot cavity containing an active CdSe nanowire and a passive MoO 3 NR is also demonstrated, and the ability of coupling light from other active nanostructures and fluorescent liquid solutions has been further demonstrated. These optical properties make single MoO 3 NRs attractive building blocks as elements and interconnects in miniaturized photonic circuitries and devices.