LONG-TERM STABILITY OF A POLED SIDE-CHAIN NONLINEAR-OPTICAL POLYMER

A side-chain nonlinear optical polymer consisting of copolymers of 4-m ethylamino-4'-nitrostilbene and methacrylate was poled and shown to be orientationally stable for almost 8 yrs. At approximately 110 degrees C below its glass transition, its electrooptic coefficient was reduce d by less than 25% of its initial value. In addition, adding an anneal ing step during the poling process further improved its orientational stability. These behaviors are consistent with existing empirical mode ls describing poling relaxation of nonlinear optical polymers, and dem onstrate that with appropriate molecular design, they can become viabl e nonlinear optical materials for commercial devices. (C) 1998 America n Institute of Physics.