Second-order nonlinear optical properties of cross-linked silica films prepared through sol-gel process

In this paper, second-order NLO chromophores containing two reactive sites have been synthesized and characterized by 1H NMR, FTIR and elemental analysis. The transparent films have silica network of matrix and covalently bonded chromophore of NLO segment were then fabricated via sol-gel process. The SHG coefficients (d33) of the poled films were calculated to be around 50 pm/V by in situ second harmonic generation (SHG) measurement. The thermal stability of the NLO coefficient was investigated by the depoling experiment and temporal decay test, showing that the cross-linked films had a good thermal stability up to 160 °C.