Nanofibers are one-dimensional nanostructures exhibiting smart physicochemical properties which enable their use in different fields such as photonics, biotechnology, optoelectronics and energy harvesting. Light-emitting or other active polymer nanofibers, made of conjugated polymers or of blends embedding chromophores or other functional dopants, such as inorganic nanowires, have attracted an increasing interest for the realization of new photonic tools and devices to be integrated in chips for microfluidics, diagnostics, bioimaging and quantum communication. In general, a single fiber can work as either incoherent or coherent source, and waveguide medium. Here we review our recent results on nanofibers for photonics and show how the material choice and the environmental conditions enable the realization of novel device geometries for waveguiding and amplified spontaneous emission. Additive manufacturing methods provide further degree of freedom for the device design. The research received funding from the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement no. 682157, “xPRINT”).
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