Variation of the glass transition temperature in organic photorefractive materials: Plasticizer versus novel synthetic approaches

Many photorefractive (PR) materials require plasticizers in order to decrease the glass transition temperature, allowing for orientational enhancement by the chromophores. Introduction of the plasticizer, however, alters not only the viscosity but also the photoconductive properties of the material. This can be shown by comparing two different plasticizers which were introduced into a bifunctional low-molecular-weight PR glass and into a polyfluorene guest-host polymer. The latter reaches response times down to 600 μs at a writing intensity of 1 W/cm 2 . We have recently improved the concept of low-molecular-weight PR glasses. A suitable photoconducting unit allows the synthesis of a bifunctional system with a glass transition of 22.6 °C. Therefore, no plasticizer is needed. The material is based on a triphenyldiamine (TPD) moiety to which a nonlinear-optical chromophore is directly attached. The system is the first representative of a whole class of TPD molecules and polymers for photorefractive applications.