Novel Sol-Gel Processed Photorefractive Materials

Abstract

The authors report the development and characterization of a new photorefractive multifunctional ormosil consisting of a second-order nonlinear optical chromophore and a charge transporting group covalently bound to a silicon atom. The sol-gel technique is used to process this ormosil into a homogeneous, single-phase material which exhibits electrooptic and charge transporting properties. When doped with a photocharge generation sensitizer, the material shows photorefractivity as evidenced by the electric field dependence of the four-wave mixing diffraction efficiency and that of the two-beam coupling gain.