Orientational dynamics in dye-doped organic electro-optic materials

The time dependent birefringence of polymer-based electro-optic materials is investigated using ellipsometry. We show that the birefringence after switching off the poling field does not depend only on the induced refractive index, but also on how that level was reached. The role of the poling voltage and poling time is discussed in turn-on and turn-off experiments and an original curve-fit function is introduced. We also propose a schematic model of the polymer dynamics in the system, which is consistent with complementary dielectric measurements.