New materials for integrated optics based on functionalized photopolymers

Organic materials are of increasing interest for optical devices, especially in applications based on quadratic optical non linearities. In this context, we have studied photopolymerizable mixtures doped with non linear optical push-pull chromophores. The doped photopolymerizable films are poled with a static electric field and polymerized with a spatially controled irradiation in order to freeze the orientation of the chromophores in the desired areas only. The temporal stability of the chromophore orientation is checked by second harmonic measurements. The photopolymerizable system was chosen by taking into account the possibilities of microstructuration under visible illumination. This property was demonstrated by recording permanent thick phase gratings. Simultaneously, optimization of the polymer matrix from the viewpoint of chemical composition, conditioning and functionalization of the chromophore was performed in order to improve the stability of the chromophore orientation. Formulating of the material requires a fair knowledge of the coupling between photochemical conversion, mass transport, stiffening of the polymer matrix. Photostructuration together with stable non linear optical properties allows now to consider realistic applications.