Silica-based hybrid nonlinear optical chromophore-trapping film prepared by sol-gel polymerization

A new thermal‐resistant second‐order nonlinear optical film has been prepared by in situ poling and sol–gel processing of 1,4‐phenylene bis(4‐trimethoxylsilylethylbenzoate) (PMSE) and Disperse Red 1 (DR1). The monomer, PMSE, was synthesized by Pt‐catalyzed hydrosilylation reaction followed by alcoholysis reaction. The chromophore DR1 was embedded in the crosslinked organosilicon polymeric matrix. The film was characterized by FTIR, differential scanning calorimeter (DSC), and X‐ray diffraction (XRD). The elemental analysis shows the DR1 content of the poled film to be about 11 wt%. The second‐order harmonic generation (SHG) coefficient (d33) of the film is 16.7 pm/v and its thermal stability studies demonstrate that the onset of d33 decay is about 130 °C. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.