Synthesis and characterisation of polyesters with nonlinear optical properties

Eight new homo- and copolymers have been obtained by polycondensation of terephthalic acid and propyloxyterephthalic acid with two different second order NLO-active chromophores derived from 4-[N,N-bis(2-hydroxyethyl)amino]-benzaldehyde. Polymers exhibit good optical clarity, satisfactory thermal stability above the glass transition temperature and most of them are soluble in common organic solvents. Second order nonlinear optical properties of two corona poled polymer films were evaluated by second harmonic generation (SHG) measurements with an incident radiation of 1542 nm.