Chromophores with side isolate groups and applications in improving the poling efficiency of second non-linear optical (NLO) materials

Abstract In this paper, alkyl groups with different lengths are introduced to the two-dimensional spindle-type chromophores as the steric isolators to improve the poling efficiency and long term stability of the poled polymers for second-order nonlinear optical materials. The structure and thermal properties of alkyl functionalized chromophores are characterized by the 1 H NMR, FT-IR, UV–Vis, DSC, TGA et al. The chromophores with different alkyl groups present extremely similar maximum absorbance wavelength (480 nm), which means they have very similar first-order hyperpolarizability. Guest-host polymer doped with chromophores has been prepared. Those materials display different glass transition temperatures and good thermal stability. According to the electro-optic coefficients studies and poling efficiency results, chromophores with longer alkyl side chain groups exhibit better poling efficiency and larger electro-optic coefficients. Especially for the chromophores with octyl group, the poling efficiency increases up to 3 times compared to the reference chromophore 2-(3-{2,5-Phenylmethanol-4-[4-(dimethylamino)styryl]-styryl-5,5-dimethylcyclohex-2-enylidene)malononitrile (STC), while the corresponding electro-optic coefficient of the poled polymers increases up to 4 times, indicating a significant effect of the isolate groups on improving the poling efficiency.