Reduced Hole Mobility in Photorefractive Polymers due to the Chromophore Dipole Moment

The recent demonstrations of low-cost high performance photorefractive polymers has encouraged more detailed studies of charge carrier transport mechanisms in photorefractive polymers as charge transport is a limiting factor in the sensitivity of these materials. The photorefractive effect is a mechanism for non local refractive index grating formation in an electro-optic material due to nonuniform illumination, through photoconduction and linear electro-optic response. The speed of photorefractive effect which remains low at present, is proportional to photoconductivity, hence improved understanding of transport mechanisms is vital. This report describes the negative effect the dipole moment of the non-linear chromophore has on the hole mobility in photorefractive polymers.