Re-evaluation of the thermal stability of optically nonlinear polymeric guest-host systems

Guest-host polymer systems with potential use in electro-optic devices are discussed. The polymer host is a polyimide and the guest chromophores are 2,4,5-triarylimidazoles (lophines). Poling stabilities have been obtained by extrapolating the second harmonic generation decay using a stretched exponential function and extrapolated lifetimes greater than a year at 80°C have been obtained. In addition, an apparent relationship between the stability of poled order and the glass transition temperature is discussed.