Investigation of a new electro-optical guest-host polyetherketone polymer films

The polyetherketone (PEK-c) guest-host system thin films in which the range of the weight percent of 3-(1,1-dicyanothenyl)-1-phenyl-4,5-dihydro-1H-pyr azole (DCNP) is from 20% to 50% were prepared. Their corona poling temperat ures were optimized by using the in situ second-harmonic generation (SI-IG) measurement. The high predicted value of electro-optical (EO) coefficient gamma (33) = 48.8 pm/v by using two-level model was obtained when the weigh t percent of DCNP in the polymer system is 40%, but EO coefficients are att enuated at higher chromophore loading than 40%. The temporal stability of t he EO activity of the guest-host polymer was evaluated by probing the decay of the orientational order of the chromophores in the polymer system, (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.