Abstract

Organic molecules and polymers have long been known to exhibit large values of the third-order susceptibility, χ⁽³⁾. However, in spite of many investigations, the mechanisms governing the nonlinear optical response of these materials are not well understood. Recently, tremendous progress in two related areas has made this problem ripe for further examination. Intense study of polyacetylene and related materials has led to a more complete understanding of the ground state and elementary excitations of conjugated polymer chains,¹ while studies of quasi-2D inorganic semiconductors, notably GaAs-AlGaAs multiple quantum well structures (MQWS), have highlighted the importance of reduced dimensionality for optical nonlinearity.² In this work we have extended the experimental and theoretical approach recently applied in MQWS to quasi-1D polydiacetylene, with unusual and novel results.

© 1988 Optical Society of America