Electro-optic and electromechanical properties of poled polymer thin films

Abstract

A simple interferometric technique has been developed to sequentially measure the piezoelectric and electro-optic (EO) coefficient of the poled polymer films. This technique, similar to the Michelson interferometer, is based on compensating the change of the optical path due to the piezoelectric and electric-optic effect of the poled polymer films by opposite piezoelectric effect of a quartz crystal. Our technique has advantages of simplicity, high sensitivity, and improved accuracies over the previous ones. The experimental values of the EO coefficients agree with the values predicted by the two-level model.