Poling Langmuir-Blodgett technique

Detailed information about the components of the second-order susceptibility y2)(-2w to, w) can be obtained from second harmonic measurements on well-defined samples such as single crystals or oriented thin films, the latter obtained by procedures such as the asymmetric Langmuir-Blodgett deposition technique or electric-field poling of NLO chromophore-doped polymers.31 In the case of single-crystal samples, the second harmonic is... 

Since the first nonlinear susceptibility is a third-rank tensor, it is only non-zero in non-centrosymmetric media. To break the centrosymmetry of the macroscopic media, poling techniques using optical and electric fields have been developed, or use was made of the inherent polar ordering in Langmuir-Blodgett films and crystals with non-centrosymmetric point groups. 

However, organic polymers, being amorphous, do not show second-order NLO effects. In order to employ them in second-order NLO measurements a polar order is induced by an external means such as electric field poling process or the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) technique. Poled polymers and the majority of the LB films possess Cocv symmetry. Therefore, the second-order optical susceptibility tensor for SHG has only three independent nonzero elements, namely, zS ZzM Under Klienman symmetry [9] conjecture... 

A comparative study of ultrathin dielectric (an azo-compound) and ferroelectric (copolymer P(VDF-TrFE)) Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films has been carried out by Electrostatic Force Microscopy (EFM). Films were poled locally by a strong d.c. field applied between a conductive tip of an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) and the bottom A1 electrode. The electrically poled domain was studied by EFM using a weak a.c. electric field and a lock-in amplifier technique. Two modes, a contact and non-contact ones, allowed for the measurement of field a in the air gap between the film and the tip and the piezoelectric distortion of the film due to the d.c. field aligned spontaneous polarization. Simultaneously the topographic relief of the same area was imaged. The results confirm unequivocally a possibility to switch ferroelectric LB film locally by an AFM tip. 

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