Synthesis and Photorefractive Properties of Multifunctional Glasses

A set of organic glasses has been synthesized and evaluated for photorefractive performance. The functions of optical nonlinearity, birefringence, and charge transport were built into a single molecule by attaching an NLO chromophore to a charge transport moiety with an adjustable linking group. The longer linking group not only lowers the glass transition temperature T g but also influences the photorefractive performance of the samples. The photorefractive gain coefficient is larger for longer linkers with about a 2-fold increase going from the 2-carbon atom linker to 12. The glass stability and chemical stability of the materials was adequate for full photorefractive characterization.