Photonic Devices on Paper, Plastic and Textile Fabrics

We will present some of our results from low temperature (<100 degrees C) chemical growth of inorganic zinc oxide (ZnO) crystalline nanostructures on non-conventional substrates. These non-conventional substrates include plastic, paper, and textile fabrics. Both nanowires and nanotubes are grown at low temperature. The nanowires were processed to fabricate white light emitting diodes (LEDs) with color rendering index (CRI) of up to 95. Then both the nanowires and nanotubes were tested regarding the piezoelectric effect and for generating electric power from mechanical movements. This opens the possibility to drive the LEDs from harvesting ambient mechanical movements. We also developed a printing process suitable for mass production to fabricate these LEDs on paper substrates. Also on the paper contacts and interconnection lines were made by a simple pencil drawing on the paper on which the nanowires then were printed. This ZnO nano-crystals graphitic circuitry worked excellent as metal electrodes. In this way a UV-detector was fabricated. Finally, we will also compare the paper substrates results with our other results on other different types of flexible substrates like cotton and plastic substrates.