Abstract

NLO-chromophores of the azobenzene type and of the stilbene type have been used either as dopants or as sidegroups in polymers in order to realize NLO-materials in which the refractive index and the nonlinear susceptibility could be modified optically.¹,² These changes are based on the photochemical transformation of these molecular units from the elongated trans state to the bent cis-state. Since the trans state is the thermodynamically stable state, the cis-isomers generally undergo a thermally activated relaxation back to trans even below the glass transition temperature.³

© 1992 Optical Society of America