Nonlinear optical properties of a newly synthesized thiophene based conjugated polymer

Abstract

We have synthesized a new donor-acceptor (D-A) conjugated polymer containing 3,4-aralkyloxy and alkoxy substituted thiophene and 1,3,4-oxadiazole as donor and acceptor moieties respectively, through precursor polyhydrazide route. The required polyhydrazide was synthesized from 3,4-dihydroxythiophene diester through multistep reaction. The new polymer was characterized by using FTIR, 1H NMR spectroscopy, followed by Elemental analysis. The average molecular weight of the polymer was determined by Gel Permeation Chromatography. The band gap of the polymer was calculated by using UV-visible and cyclic voltametry. Further, its NLO properties in THF solution were investigated both by the Z-scan and degenerate four-wave mixing (DFWM) techniques using 532 nm, 7 nanosecond laser pulses. The results indicate that they exhibit good optical limiting behavior due to effective two-photon absorption (TPA). Values of the effective TPA coefficient (β), third-order non-linear optical susceptibility (χ(3)) and figure of merit (F) were calculated. The optical and electrochemical properties reveal that the polymer is a promising candidate for opto-electronic applications.