Relative electrical resistivities and poling of nonlinear optical polymeric waveguides

Abstract

A method based on Maker fringe measurements of nonlinear optical coefficients has been used to determine the relative dc electrical resistivities of a series of linear and nonlinear optical polymers. The method can be used to identify low resistivity linear cladding materials for optimized electric field poling of nonlinear optical polymeric waveguides. As an example of the application of the technique we have studied the resistivity of poly(methyl methacrylate)-polystyrene (PMMA-PS) copolymers with varying content of the two components. The resistivity of PMMA was found to be one order of magnitude lower than that of PS. © 2000 American Institute of Physics.