Comparison of the temperature dependence of optical poling between guest-host and side-chain polymer films

A comparison of temperature-dependent optical poling between two azopolymers, a side-chain polymer system (disperse red 19-functionalized polyimide polymer) and a guest-host polymer (dispersed red 1-doped polymethyl methacrylate), has been performed at various poling temperatures ranging from 25 to 70 degrees C. The observed saturation levels of induced second-order nonlinear susceptibility in all cases could be resolved into two components with a faster and a slower decay process after poling, which were respectively attributed to the cis-to-trans isomerization and the loss of induced polar order by orientational diffusion of azo chromophores. The saturation level and its slower decay component were observed to increase with the increase of poling temperature in the side-chain polymer, but to decrease in the guest-host system. The faster decay components were observed to decrease with poling temperature in both the systems. The decay times of the faster component decreased with temperature in the two polymers. The decay times of the slower component in the guest-host polymer, which were much smaller than those in the side-chain polymer, also decreased with temperature. All the observations have been explained physically. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(99)07202-3].