Effect of temperature on the optical poling process in a side-chain polymer system

An improvement to the Fiorini and Nuzi's theory for all-optical poling is p roposed. The influence of cis is taken into account in the photoinduced pro cess. An analytical expression for the dynamic optical poling process is de rived. Contrary to Fiorini and Nuzi's theory which is based on unique proce ss, three processes exist in the time evolution of the photoinduced second- order susceptibility chi((2)) during the optical poling: two of which are f ast and the other one which is slow. Furthermore we discuss the influence o f temperature on the poling process in a side-chain polymer system with a h igh glass transition temperature. It is predicted that the two fast process es will become even faster and their relative contribution to the magnitude of chi((2)) will decrease with the increase of temperature. The prediction is verified by our experiment with disperse red 19-functionalized polyimid e polymer. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(00)02015-6].