Guest-host polymeric materials combine the good optical quality of the host and the large nonlinear-optical susceptibility of the guest. In this contribution, we report on the fabrication of polymer fibers with an elevated refractive index as defined by a doped core that confines light to regions of high third-order nonlinear-optical susceptibility. The high intensities and long propagation lengths afforded to such a single-mode guide makes the all-optical device figure of merit large enough for certain device applications. The possibility of increasing the nonlinear-optical susceptibility -- thereby the figure of merit -- with metal sphere fractal clusters are presented along with results from quadratic electro-optic measurements of a silver/PMMA system.

Date Published: 1 December 1991
PDF: 10 pages
Proc. SPIE 1560, Nonlinear Optical Properties of Organic Materials IV, (1 December 1991); doi: 10.1117/12.50704

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 1560:
Nonlinear Optical Properties of Organic Materials IV
Kenneth D. Singer, Editor(s)