Synthesis and properties of a ROMP backbone polymer with efficient, laterally appended nonlinear optical chromophores

The synthesis and properties of a new ROMP backbone polymer bearing lateral donor–acceptor-substituted (E)-diethynylethene ((E)-hex-3-ene-1,5-diyne) chromophores are described. The polymer with an average of 40 monomeric repeat units is readily soluble in common organic solvents such as tetrahydrofuran, dichloromethane and chloroform. Good optical-quality films were obtained by spin coating. The third-order susceptibility χ(3) at a wavelength of 1907 nm was determined to be 100 times greater than that of fused silica. After electrical poling, the polymer also showed a significant second-order nonlinear optical coefficient (d33) value, which decays by a factor of two over a period of one month at room temperature.