Photostability of electro-optic polymers possessing chromophores with efficient amino donors and cyano-containing acceptors

The photostability of various electro-optic active guest–host polymers, doped with chromophores that possess very efficient cyano-containing acceptors and dialkyamino- or diarylamino-benzenes, and also their extended thiophene analogs as bridging structures, has been investigated over a broad wavelength range in the near infrared and the visible. A variation of over 2 orders of magnitude was found in the probability that an absorbed photon will lead to a photodegraded chromophore. The most photostable chromophore contained a tricyanovinyl acceptor and a diarylaminobenzene bridge unit.