Pyroelectrical investigation of charged and poled nonlinear optical polymers

A compact and easy-to-use experimental set-up for pyroelectric investigations of poled nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers is reported. The arrangement allows for the investigation of the NLO dipole relaxation under isothermal or nonisothermal (e.g., linear heating of the polymer) conditions. Furthermore, polarization patterns in the plane of a polymer film and polarization profiles in its thickness direction can be measured in the same experimental set-up. In waveguide structures, it is possible to determine the thicknesses of an active guiding layer and of the claddings, if their thermal parameters are known. The isothermal pyroelectric relaxation data are discussed within the framework of phenomenological relaxation functions. It is found that they cannot be fitted with the stretched exponential function, a result which is in agreement with broadband dielectric-relaxation measurements. Pyroelectric experiments are the only method for investigations of all these problems in one and the same easy-to-use set-up.