Reinforced Site Isolation Leading to Remarkable Thermal Stability and High Electrooptic Activities in Cross-Linked Nonlinear Optical Dendrimers

• Published in: Chemistry of materials 2008-10, Vol.20 (20), p.6372-6377
• Main Authors: Shi, Zhengwei, Luo, Jingdong, Huang, Su, Zhou, Xing-Hua, Kim, Tae-Dong, Cheng, Yen-Ju, Polishak, Brent M, Younkin, Todd R, Block, Bruce A, Jen, Alex K.-Y
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Optical Materials (including Non-Linear Optic, Photonic, and Optoelectronic Materials); Polymeric Materials
• ISSN: 0897-4756; 1520-5002
• DOI: 10.1021/cm801828w

A series of cross-linkable electro-optic (E-O) dendrimers have been developed with anthracene- and acrylate-containing dendrons functionalized on the periphery of chromophores that can form thermally stable Diels−Alder adducts. These new E-O dendrimers with a high density of standardized AJL8-type chromophore are originally prone to thermo-decomposition in their thermoplastic form but can be converted into thermally stable networks to provide excellent site isolation for these chromophores. After poling, large E-O coefficients (up to 84 pm/V at 1310 nm) can be obtained in these dendrimers. These poled E-O dendrimers can maintain their alignment stability at 200 °C for 30 min and also possess impressive long-term stability at 150 °C for more than 200 h. This result provides a very effective molecular engineering approach to systematically increase the thermal stability of highly polarizable dipolar chromophores for high temperature on-chip applications.