Abstract

Organic polymer materials with large and fast nonlinearities are becoming potential candidates for applications in optical computational devices. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility χ⁽³⁾ of polysilane whose backbone consists entirely of silicon atoms was measured to be comparable to that of polydiacetylenes for the nonresonance case.¹,² Furthermore, polysilane is transparent in the visible range where polydiacetylenes are absorbing.

© 1988 Optical Society of America