High guest-host polymer systems

This chapter concentrates on the design of efficient dipolar NLO chromophores and the different approaches for their incorporation in non-centrosymmetric materials, including guest-host polymer systems, chromophore-functionalized polymers (side-chain and main-chain), cross-linked chromophore-macromolecule matrices, dendrimers, and intrinsically acentric self-assembled chromophoric superlattices. The different architectures will be compared together with the requirements (e.g., large EO coefficient, low optical absorption, high stability, and processability) for their incorporation into practical EO devices. First, a brief introduction to nonlinear optics is presented. 

Polymers incorporating high value chromophores, such as those illustrated in Fig. 3.23, as non-bonded dopants (guest-host systems) have been reported to have r33 values as high as 100 pmV-1. The poled polymers are, however, thermodynamically unstable. The induced non-linearity decays more rapidly for guest-host systems than for systems with covalently attached... 

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