Guest-Host Composite Films Containing Oligomeric Ladder Subunits for χ(3) NLO Applications

Several ladder polymer systems, such as POL and PTL, have displayed large third-order optical nonlinearities. However, these polymers are insoluble in common organic solvents, and as such are not amenable to studies of substituent effects on the nonlinear optical properties. During the past year we have developed synthetic and processing methodology to produce optical quality guest-host composites in polycarbonate, poly(methyl vinyl ether) and most recently polystyrene. In this paper we describe the synthesis of selected guest ladder 5-ring oligomers, and describe the preliminary NLO characterization as thin film composites.