Abstract

Conjugated polymers such as polydiacetylenes possess large third-order optical susceptibilities in their transparent-gap regions, making them potentially attractive materials for applications in all-optical signal processing. To investigate this potential, we have developed techniques for fabricating a variety of integrated optical structures, such as channel-waveguide directional couplers, from thin films of soluble polydiacetylenes.¹ At 1.06 µm these devices exhibit thermal switching at average power levels of 10 mW, and the ultrafast electronic part of the device reponse is dominated by two-photon absorption (TPA), which gives rise to intensity-dependent transmission.² Spectrally resolved measurements of this TPA have been analyzed in terms of a correlated-electron model, and it has been found, contrary to expectation, that the nonlinear properties of the polymer are dominated by states lying well above the one-photon energy gap.

© 1990 Optical Society of America