Bifunctional molecular glass for efficient photorefractive material

Two bifunctional succinates have been prepared as molecular photorefractive materials, which contain a hole-transporting triphenylamine moiety and an electro-optically active chromophore. The synthesized succinates formed stable amorphous glasses at room temperature. Succinate with 4-dicyanovinylaniline moiety as an electro-optic chromophore showed excellent photorefractive properties, i.e., 65% of diffraction efficiency, and 188 cm−1 of two-beam coupling gain at 60 V/μm, which are comparable to that observed in one of the most efficient photorefractive polymers.