Abstract

The promise of optical computing has spawned a search by experimentalists for materials with large nonlinear optical responses and an effort by theorists to understand the origin of these responses. Conjugated polymers with large electron delocalization, such as polyacetylene and polysilane, are prime candidates because of their relative abundance and chemical tun- ability. Excitonic models of varying complexity have gained acceptance in explaining many experimental results in these systems.^1-5 For example, recent nonlinear- optical measurements of polysilanes show strong evidence for biexcitons.¹²

© 1995 Optical Society of America