Development and exploitation of the unique properties of organic electro-optic materials and devices

Quantum and statistical mechanical calculations have been used to guide the development of a new generation of electro-optic materials exhibiting electro-optic coefficients in excess of 200 pm/V (seven times that of lithium niobate) and femtosecond response times (leading to device 3 dB bandwidths in excess of 200 GHz). These advances have been based on (1) improvement in molecular first hyperpolarizability by design of novel chromophores and (2) control of intermolecular electrostatic interactions by nanoscopic engineering to realize improved noncentrosymmetric order. Theoretical calculations have also defined the limits of electro-optic activity that can be achieved with a variety of material development approaches including exploitation of dendritic and dendronized polymer structures and self-assembly, sequential synthesis fabrication. A clear paradigm for the short term improvement of electro-optic activity to values a factor of ten greater than lithium niobate will be given as will a longer term development program for improvement to values thirty (or more) times greater than lithium niobate. New nanoscopically-engineered electro-optic materials also exhibit dramatically improved optical loss, thermal stability, and photochemical stability as well as improved control of solubility and processability. Structure/function studies have clarified the variation of photostability with chromophore structure, macromolecular structure including lattice hardness, and the presence of chemical and physical quenchers of singlet oxygen. It is clear that materials surpassing Telcordia standards can be prepared. Insights into the exceptional stability of organic electro-optic materials to space radiation will also be presented. Finally, organic electro-optic materials have been used to fabricate a variety of novel stripline, cascaded prism (and superprism) and ring microresonator (and photonic crystal) devices including devices that are conformal and flexible. An overview of the unique performance properties of such devices will be presented for applications such as active chip-scale wavelength division multiplexing and space-based antennae applications.