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Design and synthesis of chromophores and polymers for electro-optic and photorefractive applications

Nature volume 388, pages 845–851 (1997)Cite this article

Abstract

The ability of nonlinear optical materials to transmit, process and store information forms the basis of emerging optoelectronic and photonic technologies. Organic chromophore-containing polymers, in which the refractive index can be controlled by light or an electric field, are expected to play an important role.

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Figure 1: Illustration of the decrease in bond-length alternation (BLA; see text) as the two resonance forms contribute more equally to ground-state structure (a–d).
Figure 2
Figure 3
Figure 4: a, High-temperature NLO side-chain aromatic polyimides synthesized by using a post-Mitsunobu reaction to graft NLO chromophores onto hydroxyl-containing precursor polyimides.
Figure 5: Illustration of the photorefractive effect.
Figure 6
Figure 7: Comparison of low-Tg photorefractive (PR) polymers, illustrating the various components that impart photoconductivity, plasticization, sensitization and orientational nonlinearity.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the many authors cited in this Review, as well as those whose contributions could not be discussed owing to length constraints, for their contributions to the field andtoourunderstainding of it; and J. Perry and F. Meyers for help in the preparation of this manuscript.This work was supported by the US Office of Naval Research, the US Air Force OfficeofScientific Research, the National Science Foundation, and the US Ballistic Missiles Defense Organization.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beckman Institute, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, 91125, California, USA

    Seth R. Marder

  2. Optical Sciences Center, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, Arizona, USA

    Bernard Kippelen & Nasser Peyghambarian

  3. Department of Chemistry, Northeastern University, Boston, 02115, Massachusetts, USA

    Alex K.-Y. Jen

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Marder, S., Kippelen, B., Jen, AY. et al. Design and synthesis of chromophores and polymers for electro-optic and photorefractive applications. Nature 388, 845–851 (1997). https://doi.org/10.1038/42190

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