Abstract

Recently, silicon-based polysilane polymers have attracted considerable interest because of their potential applications in optical and electronic devices. In previous measurements,¹ the value of the third-order optical nonlinear coefficient χ⁽³⁾ was determined to vary over 10⁻¹²–10⁻¹⁰ esu, depending on the wavelengths and mechanisms. The time response of χ⁽³⁾ at 532 nm was determined to be <3 ps in optical Kerr gate and degenerate four-wave mixing measurements in phenylmethyl polysilanes. However, the sign of χ⁽³⁾ has not yet been determined. In this work, we report on the determination of the sign and magnitude of χ⁽³⁾ in phenylmethyl polysilane by using the single-beam Z-scan technique with 30-ps pulses at 532 nm and 1064 nm.

© 1991 Optical Society of America