Book Description
The research accomplished in this project consists of four tasks each dealing with a different class of nonlinear optical (NLO) materials. Task (I): Second-order nonlinear optical materials. We developed new chromophores and processing to produce electro-optic materials with enhanced optical transparency towards the visible (>=700 nm), increased chemical and thermal stability and stability of poled alignment for 1000 hours at 100 deg C. Several approaches showed promises and we accomplished a great deal. Also, we developed polyurethane cross-linking polymers to produce thermally stable poling alignment in both molecular-ionic type and neutral type second-order chromophores. In both cases stability up to 1000 hours at 100 deg C was achieved. In another approach, in collaboration with Professor Shea of University of California, Irvine, we have employed ormosils to produce stable poled alignments. Task (II): Third-order nonlinear optical materials. We synthesized a group of phosphoylides containing a polarizable P atom and investigated their X(3) behavior via femtosecond Kerr gate measurements. By using optically heterodyned and phase-tuned Kerr gate techniques, we obtained both the signs and the magnitudes of the real and the imaginary components of X(3).