Near Infrared Absorption Properties of PTS and Poly(4-BCMU) Crystals and Thin Films

Abstract

Conjugated organic polymers are promising nonlinear optical materials for high-speed photonic switching1,5 and signal processing applications. For their potential use in light-control-by-light serial guided-wave wideband devices, large optical refractive nonlinearities6,7, n2, and ultrafast response times, τ, are widely recognized as important material parameters. However, low linear optical absorption, α, has received considerably less attention. In an optical device based upon a nonlinear refractive optical material, a large n2/α is required to minimize the optical energy dissipated.