NEW ORGANIC PHOTOREFRACTIVE NONLINEAR OPTICAL MATERIALS

MANY OF THE MOST DRAMATIC AND POTENTIALLY USEFUL PHENOMENA OF NONLINEAR OPTICS -INCLUDING OPTICAL PHASE CONJUGATION, NEURAL NETWORK OPTICAL COMPUTING, AND REAL-TIME HOLOGRAPHY -HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED USING PHOTOREFRACTIVE CRYSTALS AT LOW CW LASER POWERS. UNFORTUNATELY, EXISTING INORGANIC PHOTOREFRACTIVE MATERIALS SUCH AS BARIUM TITANATE ARE FAR TOO SLOW, TOO TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE, AND TOO DIFFICULT TO PRODUCE FOR USE IN PRACTICAL SYSTEMS. ORGANIC AND POLYMERIC SUBSTANCES HAVE EMERGED AS IMPORTANT SECOND AND THIRD ORDER NONLINEAR OPTICAL MATERIALS, BUT TO DATE NO ORGANIC PHOTOREFRACTIVES HAVE BEEN FOUND. PHASE I RESEARCH IS DIRECTED AT DISCOVERING AN ENTIRELY NEW CLASS OF ORGANIC PHOTOREFRACTIVES, WHICH PROMISE TO BE MUCH FASTER, CHEAPER AND EASIER TO PROCESS INTO A VARIETY OF FORMS. THE KEY PROBLEM OF COMBINING PHOTOCONDUCTIVE AND ELECTROOPTIC EFFECTS IN A SINGLE MATERIAL WILL BE APPROACHED VIA A NUMBER OF ALTERNATIVE RESEARCH PATHS. THE RESEARCH PROGRAM INVOLVES A COMBINATION OF EXPERIMENTAL TRIALS OF FOUR INITIAL CONCEPTS AND FOCUSED THEORETICAL EFFORTS. A MULTIDISCIPLINARY TEAM OF INDUSTRIAL AND ACADEMIC SCIENTISTS HAS BEEN ORGANIZED TO ADDRESS THIS HIGHLY CHALLENGING TECHNICAL PROBLEM.