TOWARDS THERMALLY STABLE, HIGHLY ELECTRO-OPTICALLY ACTIVE ORGANIC POLYMERS: DESIGN AND SYNTHESIS OF CROSSLINKABLE POLYIMIDES CONTAINING ZWITTERIONIC NONLINEAR OPTICAL CHROMOPHORES

Abstract

A series of nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers were synthesized by grafting a zwitterionic chromophore onto host acid-containing polyimides with different glass transition temperatures and chain mobility. All the NLO polymers showed good solubility, thermal stability and good film-forming ability. The poling and electro-optic (EO) studies revealed a strong dependence of EO coefficients on the polymer chain mobility or the glass transition temperatures. A new thermally crosslinkable group was introduced into the NLO polymers, in order to achieve high temporal stability of the poled NLO polymers.