Polymer materials which have abundant flexibility and which can be fabricated at lost cost are being adapted for various applications, including the insulating materials of a range of electrical and electronic devices, as well as leading-edge devices, such as artificial satellites. Our research aims to impart high functional properties to polymer materials that are used as optical waveguides by making use of the ion implantation method, which is capable of imparting high energy at locations of our choosing.

Our laboratory creates highly functional light transmission materials by ion irradiation. We succeeded in increasing the functionality of polymer optical waveguides, based on our observation that the refractive index increases by irradiating ions into fluorinated polyimide, a polymer material.

Based on the selection of ion implantation conditions, we control for the distribution of the refractive index and fabricate highly functional optical devices.

The advantages of ion irradiation include the ability to fabricate rods oriented in the same direction, the ability to directly transfigure particles inside dielectrics, and the ability to control the aspect ratio by dose and ion species.

Sponsord research, Collaboration research, Technical consultation

■Academic Awards: Many awards including the Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan (IEEJ) Fellow; Consortium for Electric Power Technology Achievement Award; Professor Emeritus of Xi’an Jiaotong University; IEEJ Outstanding Achievement Award; IEEJ Fundamentals and Materials Society Special Award, Academic Contribution Award, M.Ieda Memorial Lecture Award; IEEE International Conference on Properties and Applications of Dielectric Materials; IEEJ Senior Member; U.S. IEEE DEIS Whitehead Memorial Award; and IEEJ Technical Committee on Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation (TC-DEI) Academic Contribution Award, Ieda Award