Nonresonant n(2) and two-photon-absorption dispersion measurements of DPOP-PPV and DP-PPV/DP-PFV polymer strip waveguides

A very stable and accurate semi-integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer setup, that was used to obtain the sign and magnitude of the nonlinear coefficient n(2) of two different main chain organic poly(phenylene vinylene) polymer derivatives in the wavelength region between 880-990 nm, is presented. The nonlinear refractive index coefficient n(2) is of the order of 10(-14) cm(2)/W for both polymers, Power dependent transmission measurements provided the two-photon absorption coefficient beta. It ranges from almost zero to 0.16 cm/GW depending on the wavelength. The results show that the poly(phenylene-vinylene)-derivatives are promising candidates for opto-optical waveguide switching elements.