Recent advances with electro-optic polymers

In recent years the electro-optic polymers emerged as an important branch of material science. This growth and interest is fundamentally motivated by practical application of these materials in second-order nonlinear optics and in waveguiding configuration. Indeed, these materials marry excellent optical quality of amorphous sigma bonded polymers with enhanced first hyperpolarizability of imbedded organic nonlinear optical molecules. Although a big progress was achieved with them, concerning particularly the science, understanding and applications, some problems remain still incompletely solved, particularly the stability of induced polar order by the application of external electric field and the molecule aggregation. In this review paper we recall techniques of thin film fabrication, poling, characterization of NLO properties and discuss more precisely problems of molecule aggregation as well as the temporal decay of polar order. A novel 3D second-order NLO chromophores, namely the [2] paracyclophanes, which may help to limit the aggregation, are proposed. We show, in particular, that this molecule can be poled in doped PMMA thin films. Practical applications of electro-optic polymers are also reviewed and discussed.