Waveguide devices from nonlinear organic materials

Organic materials have been applied to second and third order nonlinear optical thin film waveguide devices. In second-order devices, the basic material was a side-chained disperse red 1 (DR1) - methylmethacrylate (MMA) co-polymer system which was used for frequency doubling in the shorter wavelength region. The co-polymer was spin-coated on a Pyrex substrate and poled under a high DC-electric field over the glass transition temperature. Phase matchings at doubled wavelengths, 532 and 406 nm were realized by Cherenkov type in-phasing between fundamental and doubled waves avoiding strong absorption. In the third-order device, the basic material was vacuum evaporated polydiacetylene (PDA) film which was applied to all optical bistable waveguide devices together with a distributed feedback (DFB) structure.