Sol-gel processed inorganic and organically modified composites for nonlinear optics and photonics

The newly emerging field of Nonlinear Optics and Photonics offers tremendous opportunities for optical engineers and materials scientists. The approach used for sol-gel optics i.e. the use of sol-gel processing can play a very important role for the development of novel materials and device structures for nonlinear optics and photonics. In this paper, chemical processing using the sol-gel method is reported for preparation of new composite materials of both a silica glass and a V₂O₅ gel with a π conjugated polymer poly-p-phenylene vinylene up to 50% by weight. The composite films show highly improved optical quality with large third-order nonlinear optical coefficient, the latter derived from the conjugated polymer. Optical waveguiding through the film has been achieved. Nonlinear optical studies using femtosecond degenerate four wave mixing, optical Kerr gate switching and power dependent waveguide coupling have been successfully performed. Also, to investigate the use of such films for optical recording, a two dimensional grating structure has successfully been produced.