A fast-response and short-wavelength nonlinear optical chromophore for a photorefractive composite

A nonlinear optical molecule, beta,beta-diacetyl-4-methoxylstyrene (DAMST), was synthesized and used as the electro-optic chromophore in a photorefrac tive polymeric composite. Its absorption peak lies at 320 nm and shows no a bsorption at wavelengths longer than 400 nm. In a 100 mu m thickness film o f DAMST:poly(N-vinylcarbazole):2,4,7-trinitro-9-fluorenone with a weight ra tio of 59:40:1, two-beam coupling gain was measured as high as 32 cm(-1) at a wavelength of 543 nm, A response time as short as 17 ms was estimated at an applied electric field of 84 V/mu m with a writing beam intensity of 1 W/cm(2). (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0003-6951(98)00251-4].