Progress in organic photorefractive material development

The refractive index modulation in photorefractive polymers with a low glass transition temperature is dominated by orientational birefringence effects. To take advantage of these effects we developed several photorefractive polymers that contain: (i) chromophores designed to have simultaneously a large dipole moment and a high linear polarizability anisotropy, (ii) nematic phase liquid crystal droplets, (iii) transparent molecules generally used for liquid crystal applications. We discuss recent advances in these three different classes materials and emphasize their merits and trade-off.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.