Pulse poling of high performance nonlinear chromophores in polymers

James Westphal; Antao Chen; Nathaniel Burt; Lih Lin; Larry Dalton; Jingdong Luo; Alex K.-Y. Jen

doi:10.1117/12.698378

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14 September 2006 Pulse poling of high performance nonlinear chromophores in polymers

James Westphal, Antao Chen, Nathaniel Burt, Lih Lin, Larry Dalton, Jingdong Luo, Alex K.-Y. Jen

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Proceedings Volume 6331, Linear and Nonlinear Optics of Organic Materials VI; 63310H (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.698378
Event: SPIE Optics + Photonics, 2006, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Conjugated chromophores with permanent dipole moments can be aligned by heating a thin polymer film containing chromophores in an external electric field. The heated "guest-host" system is then cooled in the field to maintain the chromophores' alignment. Dielectric breakdown and charge transfer, however, often limit the external electric field to about 100 V/μm of film thickness. It was hypothesized that electrical pulses could increase the voltage of the poling field without damaging the sample films. This was achieved by combining an amplified waveform from a function generator with the DC poling field. Pulse amplitudes were varied from 10 to 10³ V. Pulse frequencies were varied from 10^-1 to 10³ Hz with a duty cycle of up to 50% of the pulse period. Pulse amplitudes were found to have optimum effects at less than 15% of the DC field at low frequencies, 0.1-10 Hz, with a sinusoidal pulse shape. It was found that this technique induced up to a 20% improvement in optical properties without damaging the sample films.

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James Westphal, Antao Chen, Nathaniel Burt, Lih Lin, Larry Dalton, Jingdong Luo, and Alex K.-Y. Jen "Pulse poling of high performance nonlinear chromophores in polymers", Proc. SPIE 6331, Linear and Nonlinear Optics of Organic Materials VI, 63310H (14 September 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.698378

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