Synthesis, characterization and nonlinear optical properties study of polymers based on coloured monomers

We have synthesized coloured monomer structures characterized by the simult aneous existence of a polarizable double bond and an extended chromophore. The polymerization and copolymerization of these monomers have been tested with styrene and methyl methacrylate. The third-order nonlinear optical (NL O) properties of different samples have been studied from their solutions u sing chloroform as solvent. The third-order hyperpolarizability gamma(xxxx) of the better materials can reach 10(-29) esu at 532 nm and their response time is faster than 35 ps. The corresponding third-order NLO susceptibilit y X-xxxx((3)) is estimated to be 6 x 10(-11) esu and the figure of merit X- (3)/alpha = 7.510(-2) esu cm is larger than that of most currently known no nlinear optical polymers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.