Abstract

We investigate the sensitivity and ultrafast electrooptic response of poled polymer films. Using a copolymer consisting of methyl methacrylate and red dye substituted methacrylate, we have poled films and integrated them into GaAs-based photoconductive switches. Our laser is a hybrid mode-locked dye laser providing 100-fs pulses at 830 nm. An excitation beam creates electrical transients and a probe beam is used for detection in the polymer via electrooptic sampling. We have sandwiched a 4-µm poled film on top of a monolithic GaAs switch and coplanar transmission line. Performing this experiment in the reflection mode, we measure risetimes in the polymer of 1.7 ps, indicating a measurement bandwidth of at least 200 GHz.

© 1991 Optical Society of America