Polyaniline sol-gels and their third-order nonlinear optical effects

Abstract

Sol-gel matrices can provide an inert host for optically active organic compounds. Here we describe the room temperature synthesis of high quality silica glasses containing the conjugated polymers polyaniline and 2-ethyl-polyaniline. Phase conjugate reflectivity (R pc) values for both solutions and sol-gels containing the polymers were obtained via degenerate four-wave mixing experiments (DFWM). The third-order resonance enhanced molecular susceptibility value for emeraldine base in solution was calculated to be 1.6 × 10 −11 esu, which is greater than that of a carbon disulfide reference (1.7 × 10 −12 esu). Sol-gel films containing 5 mg/mL of the ring substituted 2-Et-PANi were synthesized and found to have third-order susceptibilities of 4.8 × 10 −13 esu.