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

Abstract

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-pyrazole (DCNP) is from 20% to 50% were prepared. Their corona poling temperatures were optimized by using the in situ second-harmonic generation (SHG) measurement. The high predicted value of electro-optical (EO) coefficient γ 33=48.8 pm/v by using two-level model was obtained when the weight percent of DCNP in the polymer system is 40%, but EO coefficients are attenuated at higher chromophore loading than 40%. The temporal stability of the EO activity of the guest–host polymer was evaluated by probing the decay of the orientational order of the chromophores in the polymer system.