Langmuir-Blodgett films for second-order nonlinear optics

Abstract

Langmuir-Blodgett films have been fabricated of a prepolymerized amphiphile containing a chromophore of high second-order nonlinear optical activity. Thick films, containing as many as 262 layers of noncentrosymmetric structure have been prepared by alternate deposition of the dye polymer and several different materials. In contrast to previous literature reports on Langmuir-Blodgett films of other polymeric dyes, these films show the theoretically expected quadratic dependence of second harmonic generation with film thickness. Polarization studies of the second harmonic generation demonstrate that the chromophores are highly ordered in these films. In addition, by using all-polymeric materials it has been possible to fabricate a waveguide of these films with optical attenuation of about 1 dB cm-1, substantially lower than has been previously reported for Langmuir-Blodgett films even without a noncentrosymmetric structure.