Abstract
The performance of photorefractive (PR) polymers strongly depends on the incorporated nonlinear-optical chromophores. We compare three polysiloxane-based PR guest–host polymers with an azo, a stilbene, and a tolane type of chromophore. Characteristic properties such as diffraction efficiency η, gain coefficient Γ, phase shift ϕ, modulation of the index of refraction and response time are measured as a function of the external electric field. Orientational enhancement as well as the influence of photoisomerization is observed and analyzed quantitatively. The materials show high performance with corresponding to external diffraction efficiencies of 60% for samples of only 40-μm thickness.
© 1998 Optical Society of America
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