Abstract

In the last three years, a number of researchers have succeeded in making polymers which exhibit the photorefractive effect.^1-4 These polymers have numerous potential applications in integrated optics, optical processing, optical data storage, optical computing, communications, image processing, optical switching, thresholding, laser resonators, simulation of neural networks, and studies of nonlinear dynamics. Elements of these applications have been implemented in the laboratory using high-performance photorefractive crystals. However, the cost of crystal growth and preparation has been a primary impediment to commercial application of crystal photorefractive devices. Photorefractive polymers, on the other hand, have very low production cost and will be particularly suitable for formation of waveguide devices for use in, e.g., integrated optics. The photorefractive performance of the polymers must be greatly improved, to meet or exceed the performance of available crystals.

© 1993 Optical Society of America