Crosslinkable polyimides for electro-optic applications

The development of second order nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers involves several important steps. The first step is the design, synthesis and characterization of second-order NLO chromophores followed by the identification of a suitable polymer matrix into which the chromophore can be incorporated either as a guest, as a side-chain or a main- chain group. Thin films of candidate polymers are then fabricated and studied by a number of spectroscopic and thermal analyses techniques in order to characterize their NLO properties such as EO coefficient (or (chi) (2)), optical losses, and temporal stabilities of poling-induced chromophore alignment. This work describes the development, characterization and optimization of materials for second- order nonlinear optical applications. The second-order nonlinear optical materials are designed to possess large second-order nonlinearity by embedding 2nd order NLO active chromophores in high glass transition temperature polyimide structures.