New polymeric material containing the tricyanovinylcarbazole group for photorefractive applications

We report on the synthesis and characterization of a new, completely polymeric material with a large electro‐optic coefficient and photoconductivity. A methacrylic ester polymer containing the tricyanovinylcarbazole group with an alkylene spacer was synthesized. With 49 mW laser power, the photoconductivity of the polymer is 9.8×10−10 Ω−1 cm−1 at an applied electric field of 1.4×106 V/cm. Its electro‐optic coefficient is 6.1 pm/V. The quantum efficiency of photocarrier generation and the photorefractive figure of merit were calculated. This electro‐optic polymer is photoconductive and has photocarrier trap sites without any added sensitizer or photocarrier transport reagent, making it a suitable candidate for photorefractive applications.