Abstract

Polydiacetylenes (PDAs) have attracted a great deal of attention amongst conjugated polymers since they can be obtained in form of single crystals and possess particularly high values of cubic optical susceptibility. Application of these materials in integrated optics requires large scale preparation of thin films with very good optical quality and highly oriented conjugated chains to maximize the non-linear optical properties. The availability of highly ordered samples would allow to gain further understanding of the ultrafast nonlinear response in conjugated polymers since large defect-free single crystals of PDA are difficult to obtain. Previous studies in PDA films have been performed with partially oriented samples.^1,2

© 1994 Optical Society of America