Abstract

Materials with large and fast nonlinear optical responses are needed for optoelectronic applications.^1,2 Recently, it has been suggested that the major changes in oscillator strength due to photoexcitation of solitons, polarons, and bipolarons in polyacetylene and polythiophene should lead to relatively large values of the third-order nonlinear coefficient χ³.³ We report measurements of χ³ in polythiophene, polyacetylene, arid polysilane polymers using a 3-D picosecond four-wave mixing technique.

© 1989 Optical Society of America