High-temperature thermoplastic polymers for electro-optic applications

We report the electro-optic and thermal stability properties of a new class of novel thermostable fluorene-based cardo-type polymers. The electro-optic coefficients found for these materials are comparable to those obtained from many other reported side-chain polymers. Isothermal decay measurements for both the charge transfer absorption bands and for the electro-optic responses demonstrate that the thermal degradation of electro-optic response in these materials is dominated by chemical degradation and not by depoling, at least over a large range of elevated temperatures. One of these materials for example is characterized by a measured 1/e decay time of over 40 days at 190 degree(s)C with extrapolated lifetimes of over one year at 175 degree(s)C.© (1994) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.