Macromolecules, Vol.29, No.7, 2590-2598, 1996
Novel Thermally Stable Polymer Materials for 2nd-Order Nonlinear Optics
A novel method of preparing thermally stable thin films with intrinsic second-order nonlinear optical activity is described. Design and synthesis yielded new ferroelectric bifunctional liquid crystalline acrylate monomer mixtures with a fast electro-optical response in the chiral smectic C (SmC*) phase. The ferroelectric liquid crystalline monomer mixtures were poled and subsequently cross-linked by insitu photopolymerization in the surface-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal state. After cross-linking the polarization is no longer reversible, hence the material is pyroelectric and not ferroelectric. The cross-linked pyroelectric materials displayed a thermally stable nonlinear optical response.