Analysis of relaxation processes in electro-optic polymers

Abstract

The lognormal or Wagner function has been used to describe the orientational relaxation in optically nonlinear polymers. The orientational relaxation of dipolar chromophores either dissolved in (guest-host) or chemically attached (side chain or embedded head) to an amorphous polymer host is followed by monitoring the decay of second harmonic generation. From the temperature dependence of the lognormal fitting parameters, one can obtain activation enthalpies and entropies for the orientational relaxation processes in these systems.