Using functionalized nonlinear optical chromophores to prepare NLO-active polycarbonate films

• Chromophores D–π–A with aniline, thiophene and 1,3-diethyl-2-thiobarbituric acid.
• Chromophores with alkylsilyl groups favor the quality of the host-guest films.
• Alkylsilyl groups on chromophores reduce intermolecular interactions on films.
• The host-guest films show good temporal stability (confirmed/tested up to 8 months).

Novel functionalized second order nonlinear optical (NLO) chromophores have been prepared with functionalized aniline as electron donor, thiophene or isophorone as a π-spacer and 1,3-diethyl-2-thiobarbituric acid as electron acceptor. The films prepared from dyes with alkylsilyl bulky groups gave better performance than the corresponding non functionalized chromophores due to the reduction of the intermolecular electrostatic interactions. The incorporation of chromophores 4 and 10 in a polycarbonate matrix allowed the preparation of good optical-quality films. Nonlinear coefficients d33 and d31 as high as 17 and 5.6 pm V−1, respectively, were obtained. Moreover, the temporal stability of these host-guest films was confirmed up to eight months (>80%).

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