Optical and microstructural properties of a simple ORMOSIL

The optical and microstructural properties of a methyl-modified silicate have been investigated in the absence and presence of a guest fluorescent dopant. The ORMOSIL host exhibits low intrinsic optical loss, down to 0.6 dB cm−1 at 0.633 µm. The dopant was found to be uniformly dispersed throughout the matrix. Evaluation of the host microstructure indicates that it is amorphous and that there is no evidence for macroscopic phase-separation, but that at ultra-high resolution there exists some local elongated structure which may be due to residual microporosity.