STUDIES OF FUNCTIONALIZED POLY(PHENYLENEVINYLENE)S

This paper reports the synthesis of poly(phenylenevinylene) functionalized with a push-pull nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophore. The initial aim to synthesize these polymers was to study their photorefractive effect. In contrast to our expectation, the polymers did not show any photorefractive phenomenon although they did exhibit two necessary properties for the photorefractive effect: photoconductivity and electro-optical activity. Detailed physical property studies have been carried out on these polymers, including measurements of photoconductivity, second harmonic generation, and electrooptic coefficients. An interesting liquid crystallinity was also observed in these polymers.