Abstract

Photorefractive polymer materials offer a number of potential advantages over inorganic materials, particularly low cost of material, low dc dielectric constant, ease of fabrication, and compatibility" with integrated optics. In these materials, a host matrix that is optically nonlinear by virtue of either poling or crystal growth is made photoconducting by the addition of dopant molecules which allow for charge generation, transport, and/or trapping. In comparison with organic crystals, the poled polymer materials in general offer additional flexibility in that they are easily doped, readily formed into thin films for waveguide experiments, and made acentric by poling. The detailed properties of the polymer materials are therefore of current interest so that the ultimate limits of performance of this new materials class can be determined.

© 1992 Optical Society of America