Effect of the sensitizer on the properties of fully functionalized photorefractive epoxy polymers and their performance in the hologram image storage

The 3-amino-9-ethyl carbazole (AEC)/Dispersed Orange 3 (DO3)/diglycidyl 1,2 cyclohexanedicarboxylate (DCD) main chain copolymers are synthesized and s tudied on their photorefractive (PR), photoconductive, and holographic char acteristics. They are good hologram recording media because not only the st ored hologram exhibits excellent fringe contrast with the resolution at abo ut 20 mu m, but also the image can be stored, erased, and overwritten. The UV/Vis spectra shows that AEC segments may form charge transfer complexes w ith either DO3 segments or TNF sensitizers. By incorporating the sensitizer or increasing the charge transfer component concentration, the grating gro wth rate can be speeded up. Applying an electric field on the polymer film containing no sensitizer helps to elevate the grating growth speed, but it shows little influence on the grating growth speed of the films with sensit izers. More nonlinear optical (NLO) segments in the copolymer result in hig her diffraction efficiency. The dark decay of the film depends on the dark conductivity. Incorporating sensitizers or more charge transport segments l eads to more dark decay because of increasing dark conductivity. The dark d ecay of the PR properties at elevated temperature can also be evaluated by the thermal stimulated discharge current (TSDC) spectroscopy technique. (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.