Synthesis and characterization of novel photorefractive low molecular weight glasses

Seven novel photorefractive glasses have been prepared in an effective four-step synthesis. The low molar mass glasses consist of a triphenylamine-core substituted with two carbazole moieties and a NLO-chromophore (NLO-DCTAs). In a second series of compounds (NLO-DATAs) the carbazole groups are replaced by diphenylamine. The compounds from stable glasses with Tgs of about 120 degrees C and 85 degrees C. The photorefractive properties such as the diffraction efficiency (eta) , the modulation amplitude of the refractive index (Delta) n, and the gain coefficient (Gamma) were determined by means of degenerate four-wave mixing and two- beam coupling experiments. We observed diffraction efficiencies of (eta) equals 90 cm-1. The samples have excellent properties with respect to optical quality and shelf-lifetime.© (1998) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.