High performance photorefractive polymers and their applications

Abstract

Within the past years, photorefractive polymers have gained in maturity and are emerging as a promising new class of materials for photonic applications.1,2 Several applications ranging from holographic storage to real-time optical processing3 have been demonstrated with highly efficient photorefractive polymers. In polymers with a low glass transition temperature, orientational effects were identified4 and were found to have the strongest contribution to the overall refractive index modulation amplitude.5 Due to these orientational effects, the design criteria or figure of merit of chromophores for photorefractive applications differ from those of purely electro-optic applications.