Optical nonlinearity and structural phase-transition observation of organic dye-doped polymer silica hybrid material

The optical nonlinearity of organic dye-doped poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA)–silica-gel hybrid material was investigated by second-harmonic-generation measurement. We found that incorporation of in situ polymerized solgel precursors into the organic dye-doped PMMA significantly improved the nonlinear optical stability of the system. However, improvement of thermal stability occurred only when a sufficient amount of silica gel was incorporated. A structural phase transition from pure polymer to a hybrid system was found near a 10-mol.% silica-gel concentration. The optimum polymer/tetraethoxysilane molar ratio is 2:1 to 1:1.