• defect emission
• hexagonal boron nitride
• polymern nanofibers
• waveguide

Hybrid nanostructures made of polymers and inorganic materials have gained a prominent role in many applications, ranging from aerospace to automotive, medicine and optoelectronics. In this Thesis work, hybrid polymer fibers incorporating h-BN light-emitting nanostructures were developed for the first time. The fibers are made of Poly(methyl-methacrylate) and h-BN nanoparticles with size of ~200 nm. Fibers were realized by electrospinning, a technique which exploits the elongation of a polymer solution by an electrostatic field. In order to obtain nanofibers with an average diameter < 1 μm, various strategies for the electrospinning process were investigated. Furthermore, the optical properties of the h-BN used in this Thesis and of the hybrid nanofibers here developed were investigated by micro-Raman, photoluminescence spectroscopy and confocal fluorescence microscopy. Overall, such analysis evidences the presence of luminescent defects in both h-BN nanoparticles and hybrid nanofibers, highly promising for further analysis of their single-photon emission properties. For their capability to guide light and to be interconnected in complex architectures, the hybrid h-BN-in-polymer nanofibers here developed could find applications in nanophotonic networks of quantum emitters and in optical sensing.