柔性光子器件不受传统光电子器件刚性物理状态限制,可弯曲、可折叠、可拉伸的形式使得器件独特的光电性质得以实现和调控,极大拓展了传统光电子器件的发展模式与应用空间。结合新功能光学材料、器件集成技术以及光子器件较电子器件在物质特异性传感、信道容量和抗电磁干扰能力上的优势,柔性光子技术在多学科交叉融合领域的前沿方向,如可穿戴传感、高速光互连、光场调控、生物光遗传等展现出巨大的研究和应用价值。然而目前存在柔性集成光子器件加工制备难、机械柔韧性有限、集成化程度低等挑战。针对以上问题简要回顾了近年来研究人员在柔性光子材料与器件方面取得的研究进展并对其相关技术应用前景进行了总结和展望。

Flexible photonic devices, which are bendable, foldable, and even stretchable, are not limited to the rigid physical state constraints of traditional optoelectronic devices and thus unique tunable optoelectronic properties could be achieved, which greatly expands the development and practical implementation of traditional optoelectronic devices. Combining with new functional optical materials, novel device integration technologies, and the advantages of photonic devices over electronic devices in material sensing specificity, channel capacity, and resistance to electromagnetic interference, flexible photonic devices show great research and application value in emerging and interdisciplinary fields such as wearable sensing, high-speed optical interconnect, light field manipulation, and optogenetic applications in biology. However, challenges including the fabrication difficulties, mechanical flexibility limitation, and the degree of integration exist in current flexible photonic technologies. This paper briefly reviews the recent progress on flexible photonic materials and devices to address those challenges. And further development and application demonstration for the flexible photonics has also been summarized and discussed.