Abstract

Poly(p-phenylenevinylene) (PPV) is a typical representative of conjugated polymers, which have a highly delocalized, one-dimensional conjugated π-electron system. These polymers have found much interest, because most of them can be processed rather easily to thin film waveguides and because of their large third-order nonlinearities [1-3]. Thin films of PPV are prepared by spin-coating of a soluble precursor polymer on fused silica substrates and thermal annealing under vacuum as described recently [4]. We have used thin films of PPV to develop and demonstrate a sensitive characterization method of the intensity dependent refractive index n = n₀ + n₂I and absorption coefficient α = α₀ + α₂I. The utility of any material for applications in photonics depends primarily on these quantities.

© 1996 Optical Society of America