Photorefractive properties and applications of polymer composites and fully functionalized polymethacrylates

Eric Hendrickx, David Van Steenwinckel, Christiaan Engels, Elke Gubbelmans, Kurt Van den Broeck, David Beljonne, Jean Luc Brédas, Celest Samyn, André Persoons*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

We have studied the photorefractive properties of (2,4,7-trinitro-9-fluorenylidene)malononitrile (TNFM) sensitized poly(N-vinyl-carbazole) (PVK)/N-ethylcarbazole (ECZ) polymer composites doped with two structurally related chromophores. Characterization included four-wave mixing experiments, two-beam coupling and photoconductivity measurements at a wavelength of 780 nm. At an applied field of 48 V/μm, we have observed complete internal diffraction and gain coefficients exceeding 120 cm-1. A small alteration in the chromophore donor group substituents was used to tune the ionization potential of the dopant dye. This affected the grating build-up time and photorefractive phase shift. As an application, we demonstrate the operation of a photorefractive novelty filter using a 120-μm-thick sample. The performance of the polymer composites is compared to that of three newly synthesized polymethacrylates functionalized with carbazole, a dodecyl chain as an internal plasticizer and three different dyes. Here, we have observed net two-beam coupling gain and a diffraction efficiency of 60% at 58 V/μm.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number620
Pages (from-to)25-35
Number of pages11
JournalMaterials Science and Engineering C
Volume18
Issue number1-2
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Novelty filter
  • Photorefractive polymers
  • Real-time holography

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Bioengineering
  • Biomaterials

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