Polymeric photorefractive surface waves

We theoretically studied photorefractive surface waves supported by polymers with orientationally enhanced photorefractive effect. We find that the orientational enhancement and the dependency of the quantum efficiency of generating mobile holes on the electric field make the diffusion nonlinearity in photorefractive polymers dependent not on only the variation of light intensity but also on external electric field, which is very different from the external electric field independent diffusion nonlinearity in inorganic photorefractive crystals. Consequently the profile, frequency and especially the penetration depth of polymeric photorefractive surface waves strongly depend on external electric field, which makes it more controllable than that in photorefractive inorganic crystals. The stability of polymeric photorefractive surface waves, the effects of birefringence component and electro-optic component of orientationally enhanced photorefractive nonlinearity on the formation of x or y-polarized polymeric photorefractive surface waves are also discussed.