Synthesis and optical properties of benzocarbazole-substituted polysiloxanes for polymeric photorefractive materials

A novel polysiloxane having benzo[a]carbazole and benzo[a,i]carbazole pendant groups has been synthesized and characterized. We studied the electric-field-induced birefringence, the photoconductivity and the photorefractive (PR) properties of the polymeric PR composites. The PR composite showed a diffraction efficiency of 53% at 45 V/μm. A PR response time of 1.4 s at wavelength 633 nm was obtained, which was found to be higher than that of the carbazole-substituted polysiloxane composite.