DETERMINATION OF COMPLEX TENSER COMPONENTS OF ELECTROOPTIC CONSTANTS OF DYE-DOPED POLYMER-FILMS WITH A MACH-ZEHNDER INTERFEROMETER

The complex electro-optic constants of disperse red 1 (DR1) dye molecules doped in polymethylmethacrylate film were measured by a scanning Mach-Zehnder interferometric technique. Despite a very small absorbance at 632.8 nm, DR1 molecules still have a measurable imaginary part of the EO constants. Two independent complex components, (r) over tilde(13) and (r) over tilde(33) were determined by incident angle dependence. The ratios Re[(r) over tilde(33)]/Re[(r) over tilde(13)] and Im[(r) over tilde(33)]/Im[(r) over tilde(13)] are 3.5+/-0.5 and 3.2+/-0.9, respectively. These results show that EO response is dominated by the electronic mechanism. The influence of multiple reflection in polymer film on the experimental results are briefly discussed.