Acrylonitrile-containing methyl methacrylate polymers as new host materials for second-order NLO polymers

Polymer-based nonlinear optical (NLO) materials have been studied for long decades because of their unique properties such as light weightiness and easiness in fabrications. Conventional NLO polymers consist of guest chromophores with large second order hyperpolarizabilities in host amorphous polymers. These NLO polymers did not exhibit second order NLO activities in as-prepared conditions. So-called poling procedures, the procedures applying high electric field to the materials, were necessary to induce NLO activities. However, dielectric breakdown always occurred during the poling procedures and it was quite difficult to prepare the NLO polymer devices with large volumes and wide areas.