An Investigation into the Role of Capping on Second Harmonic Generation from Nonlinear Organic Polymer and Guest-Host Thin Films by In-Situ Poling

In attempts to fabricate thermally stable second-order nonlinear polymer thin films, we have investigated the second harmonic generation (SHG) from both nonlinear polymer and guest-host thin films. We have also investigated the role of capping on the SHG, temporal stability and relaxation of dipole alignment. Corona poling techniques were employed to orient the dopants into the noncentrosymmetric structure required to obtain the SHG. The effect of capping with a polymeric encapsulant below the glass transition temperature of the polymers on the unpoled and corona poled thin films was studied. Capping of the nonlinear polymer and guest host thin films have resulted in high SHG with good temporal stability. SHG signal falls drastically during the first 8 days after poling while no further significant decay in SHG signal was observed after about 33 days. Our investigations have identified the characteristics required for a good encapsulant on a non-conductive surface.