Abstract

Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films have been fabricated from a preformed acrylate amphiphilic copolymer with nonlinear optical (NLO) active chromophores covalently attached to the polymer backbone. By alternate deposition of this NLO active polymer with a NLO passive amphiphilic polymer, high quality multilayer films have been obtained with sufficient thickness to allow waveguiding in the LB films. The observed optical attenuation is between 1 and 3 dB/cm. The linear and nonlinear optical characteristics of these films have been determined, both in transmission (or reflection) and in waveguide format. The high degree of chromophore order observed in these LB films makes this type of supramolecular structure attractive for NLO applications. Based on the observed parameters (dispersion of the refractive indices, birefringence, absorption, tilt angle of the chromophore, hyperpolarizability), the guided-mode-to-substrate-radiation-mode Cerenkov phase-matching scheme was used for efficient second-harmonic generation.

© 1992 Optical Society of America