Photoassisted Corona Poled YLD-124/DR1-co-PMMA Electrooptic Device Using Photoisomerization

A photoassisted corona poling technique (PACP) was applied to a binary chromophore system that was composed of YLD-124 and DR1-co-PMMA to enhance the poling efficiency of an electrooptic (EO) polymer device. The DR1 chromophores as a photoaddressable host material were resonantly irradiated by a polarized pumping green laser beam at a wavelength of 532 nm which is within its molecular absorption band. This process caused the DR1 chromophore´s reorientation via a cis-trans photoisomerization process. The coupled YLD-124 system´s dipoles were then poled with the assistance of a static electrical field applied to the EO core layer. In this letter, we report the experimental demonstration of the photoassisted corona poling scheme in a binary chromophore system that improved Mach-Zehnder optical modulator performance by lowering its V_π. It was shown that the device´s V_π was reduced by 21%-23% compared to a regular device that was only corona poled without the green light assistance.