PREPARATION AND PYROELECTRICAL INVESTIGATION OF BIMORPH POLYMER LAYERS

Two different procedures for the preparation of bimorph structures wit hin nonlinear optical polymer layers are reported. One technique consi sts of thermally assisted poling above the glass-transition temperatur e followed by photo-induced poling below the glass-transition temperat ure. In this poling scheme, the second step is based on the photoisome rization of the dipole molecules. The other method comprises two conse cutive thermally assisted poling steps with opposite field polarity in a double layer of two nonlinear optical polymers with different glass -transition temperatures. Pyroelectric thermal analysis is employed fo r analyzing the stability of the resulting bimorph structures, while p yroelectric depth profiling allows for a non-destructive qualitative a nalysis of their polarization distributions.