ABSTRACT
Polymers containing molecules exhibiting both quadratic nonlinear optical properties and photochromism were studied. The combination of these two properties within the same polymer material leads to two phenomena. On the one hand, when the photochemical transformation is performed on an isotropic sample under a static electric field at room temperature, a noncentrosymmetric order can be achieved. Susceptibility values (d 33) of 13 pm/V and 35 pm/V could be reached respectively with Disperse Red One and spiropyran-photomerocyanine. This phenomenon has also been observed with the furylfulgide-dihydrobenzofuran photochromic system. Moreover, a synergistic effect of the electric field and the photochemical process has been evidenced for the spiropyran-photomerocyanine system. On the other hand, nonlinear optical properties can be switched by this light induced molecular change, though total reversibility has not been reached yet. In this paper, we also discuss about the potential applications of materials exhibiting these phenomena.
