Novel design and synthetic methodologies in developing electrooptically active organic polymers

This dissertation involves the novel design and synthetic methodologies in developing electrooptically active polymers. Chapter 1 gives a brief review of the basics of nonlinear optics and electrooptic phenomenon in polymer materials.; Chapter 2 involves molecular design strategies in successful reducing the intermolecular electrostatic interactions characterized by high {dollar}mubeta{dollar} chromophores. This type of interactions conventionally has been neglected in accounting parameters of electric poling induced acentric orders. The role of electrostatic interaction in competing thermal energy and poling is given as the theoretical background of this chapter. The content of chapter 2 mainly involves modification of some of the well explored high {dollar}mubeta{dollar} chromophores which have severely affected by the electrostatic interaction in terms of translating their microscopic nonlinearity into macroscopic nonlinearity. Results of first generation modified chromophores to impede these electrostatic interactions have been met with a greater than doubling of electrooptic activity of the materials compared with their unmodified counterparts.; Chapter 3 involves developing device quality materials for electrooptic applications. While chapter 2 mainly focus on guest host studies, chapter 3 solely concentrates on synthesis and incorporation of high {dollar}mubeta{dollar} monomers, DCN, TCN and SDZ into thermally stable polyurethane polymer network, and on optimization of their NLO activities, temporal stability and optical loss. Both TCN and SDZ chromophore are the first time successfully incorporated into thermosetting polyurethane. Magnificent macroscopic nonlinearity, 29 pm/V for TCN, 36 pm/V for SDZ were realized along with good temporal stability (80{dollar}spcirc{dollar}C-120{dollar}spcirc{dollar}C) and low optical loss (1.5 dB/cm for TCN). The significance of this chapter rests upon the synthesized polymeric materials which well qualify for practical device applications.