Energy Dissipation and Asymmetric Excitation in Hybrid Waveguides for Routing and Coloring

The delivery of optical signals from an external light source to a nanoscale waveguide is highly important for the development of nanophotonic circuits. However, the efficient coupling of external light energy into nanophotonic components is difficult and still remains a challenge. Herein, we use an external silica nanofiber to light up an organic-inorganic hybrid nanowaveguide, namely, a system composed of a polymer filament doped with MoS2 quantum dots. Nanofiber-excited nanowaveguides in a crossed geometry are found to asymmetrically couple excitation signals along two opposite directions, with different energy dissipation resulting in different colors of the light emitted by MoS2 quantum dots and collected from the waveguide terminals. Interestingly, rainbow-like light in the hybrid waveguide is achieved by three-in-one mixing of red, green, and blue components. This heterodimensional system of dots in waveguide represents a significant advance toward all-optical routing and full-color display in integrated nanophotonic devices.