NLO-containing polymers with very low near-IR absorption

The preparation and characterization of organic polymers containing nonlinear optics (NLO) chromophores with the goal of achieving minimal near infrared absorption while maintaining high nonlinearity were reported. One strategy to accomplish this involves using the phosphonate group as electron-moieties in NLO chromophores, employing synthetic methodology. Another strategy being pursued utilizes electron/donor/electron-acceptor substituted fluorene derivatives, in which the fluorene ring system serves as a thermally and photochemically robust π-electron bridge. The nonlinearity of chromophore containing polymers was characterized by a standard Maker fringe technique. Waveguide loss was measured in a planar waveguide of 1.1 μm thickness at 780 nm.