Photorefractive multifunctional polymers

Photorefractivity in an organic material was first reported in 1990 [36] by the ETH Zurich group in an organic single crystal. The same year a group at Eastman Kodak developed a multifunctional polymer that showed photoconductivity and... 

An example of a side-chain multifunctional polymer is a photorefractive polymer shown in Figure 3. 

Methodology for the Synthesis of New Multifunctional Polymers for Photorefractive Applications... 

Figure 3. The structure of a multifunctional side chain photorefractive polymer.

Also, polymers that contain carbazole moieties in the backbone with two acceptor groups as multifunctional chromophores were synthesized. The sytheses were carried out by a Knoevenagel polycondensation of divinylcarbazoles with bis(cyanoacetate)s using 4-(N,N -dimethyl)pyridine as a base. Second-order nonlinear optical properties of the polymers were confirmed by second harmonic generation. The photorefractive optical gain of these polymers was demonstrated to be high. 

Dissymmetric systems shows exciton splitting of dichroic absorptions and optical activity and photochromic materials having NLO, photoresponsiveness and photorefractivity properties, which occurred due to the presence of azoaromatic and chiral functionalities in the polymers [62]. Finally, novel optically active multifunctional methacrylic copolymers were synthesized, which contained side-chains chiral moieties and linked to a photoconductive carbazolic and to a photochromic azoaromatic chromophores... 

J. Hwang, J. Sohn, S.Y. Park, Synthesis and structural effect of multifunctional photorefractive polymers containing monolithic chromophores. Macromolecules 36, 7970-7976 (2003)... 

---