Electro-optical properties of doped polymers with high transparency in the visible wavelength range

The electro-optical (EO) properties of poly(methyl methacrylate) and the photopolymer poly(vinyl cinnamate) doped with varying concentrations of the EO chromophore 2-Methyl-4-nitroaniline were measured. The EO polymers were embedded in Fabry-Pérot etalons for the simultaneous determination of the Pockels and Kerr coefficients from measurements of the fringe shift induced by an external electric field. It was found that the host polymer has a significant impact on the EO performance and that the undoped host polymers exhibit a significant Pockels effect. Moreover, the Kerr effect provides a substantial contribution of 27% to the total change of the refractive index at relatively high electric field strengths of E = 91.2 MV m −1 .