PHOTOELECTRICAL POLING OF STILBENE, BIPHENYL, AND AZOBENZENE DYES IN A POLYCARBONATE MATRIX AS STUDIED BY ELECTROABSORPTION SPECTROSCOPY

Electroabsorption spectroscopy (Stark spectroscopy) was used to charac terize the poling process of three guest-host systems containing stilb ene, azobenzene, and biphenyl dyes in a polycarbonate matrix. The poli ng was carried out at room temperature by application of a do field un der simultaneous irradiation of the sample with nonpolarized light. In vestigating different types of chromophore permitted evaluation of the influence of a local heating process on the whole poling mechanism. T he intensity dependence of the induced polar order of the azobenzene d ye was correlated with the rates of optical and thermally induced tran sitions between cis and trans isomers. (C) 1998 Optical Society of Ame rica.