Mach-Zehnder interferometry method for decoupling electro-opticand piezoelectric effects in poled polymer films

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) is utilized to decouple the electro-optic and piezoelectric tensor effects occurring in a poled polymer film. This method has significant advantages over the commonly used Teng-Man reflection ellipsometry technique by allowing for the independent determination of the Pockel's coefficients r 13 and r 33 and the piezoelectric coefficient d 33 . The r 33 value of a guest host polymer that consists of AJLZ53 amorphous polycarbonate was found to be 122.69 pm/V and 123.03 pm/V using the MZI and reflection ellipsometry method, respectively. The r 33 data fits well to the dispersion of the second order susceptibility tensor based on the two-level model approximation.