Semiconducting Polymers: Fast Response Nonlinear Optical Materials.
Abstract
Semiconductor polymers such as polyacetylene and polythiophene have experimentally demonstrated nonlinear optical processes (photoinduced absorption, photoinduced bleaching and photo-luminescence) with characteristic time scales in the picosecond range or faster. These phenomena are intrinsic and originate from the instability of these conjugated polymers toward structural distortion. The major shifts in oscillator strength due to photoexcitation of solitons, polarons and bipolarons lead to relatively large third-order nonlinear optical processes on time scales of order 10 to the minus 13th power seconds. Largely overlooked in earlier analyses, we believe these novel photo-excitations are key to understanding the nonlinear optical properties of this growing class of semiconducting (conjugated) polymers. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA158889
Entities
People
- A. J. Heeger
- D. Moses
- M. Sinclair
Organizations
- University of California, Santa Barbara