Effects of physical aging on the relaxation of poled nonlinear optical polymers

Isothermal decay of poling induced optical nonlinearity of guest-host polym er thin films was measured by the technique of in situ optical second-harmo nic generation. The effect of physical aging on the decay rate was studied over a series of aging temperatures. It was found that aging effects were l ocalized in temperature, and diminished with increasing difference between the aging and decay temperatures. The temperature localization of the aging effects can be understood in terms of the dispersive nature of the relaxat ion lifetimes of polymers. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8 979(99)04118-3].