Polymers for telecommunication devices based on /spl chi//sup 2/:/spl chi//sup 2/-cascading

Summary form only given. We envision using polymers in cascading (/spl chi//sup (2)/:/spl chi//sup (2)/) based optical processes at telecommunication wavelengths. The key figure of merit is usually [/spl chi//sup (2)/(2/spl omega/)//spl alpha/(2/spl omega/)] where /spl chi//sup (2)/(2/spl omega/) is the second order nonlinearity /spl alpha/(2/spl omega/) is the harmonic loss coefficient. Chromophore doped, poled polymers such as DANS (4-dimethylamino-4/-nitrostilbene), developed originally for electro-optic applications at 1320 nm, have exhibited larger nonlinearities than LiNbO/sub 3/, but also much higher losses at 2/spl omega/. Here we report on systematic studies of the figure of merit [/spl chi//sup (2)/(2/spl omega/)//spl alpha/(2/spl omega/)] for a series of chromophores in a guest-host system normalized to weight percents of nominally 10%.