Applied
Surface
Science
285P (2013) 469–
476
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at
ScienceDirect
Applied
Surface
Science
j
ourna
l
ho
me
page:
www.elsevier.com/locate/apsusc
Effect
of
film
compatibility
on
electro-optic
properties
of
dye
doped
polymer
DR1/SU-8
Xiaoqiang
Sun
a,b
,
Ying
Xie
a
,
Xuliang
Zhao
a
,
Dehui
Li
a
,
Shimin
Zhao
a
,
Yuanbin
Yue
a
,
Xibin
Wang
a
,
Jian
Sun
a
,
Lei
Liang
a
,
Changming
Chen
a
,
Daming
Zhang
a
,
Fei
Wang
a,∗
,
Zhiyuan
Xie
b
a
State
Key
Laboratory
on
Integrated
Optoelectronics,
Jilin
University,
No.
2699,
Qianjin
Street,
Changchun,
Jilin
130012,
China
b
Changchun
Institute
of
Applied
Chemistry,
Chinese
Academy
of
Sciences,
No.
5625,
Renming
Street,
Changchun,
Jilin
130022,
China
a
r
t
i
c
l
e
i
n
f
o
Article
history:
Received
28
March
2013
Received
in
revised
form
15
August
2013
Accepted
19
August
2013
Available online 27 August 2013
Keywords:
Electro-optic
polymers
Compatibility
Passive
cladding
Waveguide
a
b
s
t
r
a
c
t
The
physic-chemical
compatibility
of
passive
cladding
and
poled
Dispersed
Red
1
(DR1)
doped
ultravi-
olet
(UV)
curable
polymer
SU-8
was
investigated.
The
multilayer
films
consisting
of
DR1/SU-8
core
and
Norland
Optical
Adhensive
73
(NOA73),
SU-8,
polydimethylsiloxane
(PDMS),
or
polymethylmethacrylate
(PMMA)
upper-cladding
were
fabricated
on
the
silicon
substrate,
respectively.
The
interface
morpholo-
gies
were
characterized
through
scan
electronic
microscope.
Parallel
plate
electric
field
poling
was
carried
out
to
align
the
polarity
of
chromophores
in
SU-8.
The
core–cladding
interface
with
no
chemical
erosion
or
delamination
was
obtained
by
adopting
an
excess
UV
exposure
and
higher
temperature
dealing
when
NOA73
was
used
as
the
upper-cladding.
The
root
mean
square
roughness
of
the
upper-cladding
surface
was
measured
by
atomic
force
microscope
to
verify
the
poling
process.
The
electro-optic
(EO)
signal
response
amplitude
of
these
multilayer
films
was
used
to
characterize
the
polarizability
alignment
of
DR1
chromophores
by
means
of
Teng–Man
method
after
poling.
Resistivity
of
claddings
was
measured
at
the
glass
transition
temperature
of
DR1/SU-8
to
explain
the
EO
response
difference.
The
configura-
tion
of
NOA73/(DR1/SU-8)
exhibited
the
best
EO
performance
and
time
relaxation
in
amplitude
within
550
h
by
prolonging
the
cooling
time
in
poling
process.
A
channel
waveguide
was
fabricated
to
study
the
poling-induced
optical
loss.
The
results
show
that
the
selection
of
passive
cladding
with
favorable
electrical
and
chemical
property
is
essential
to
establish
optical
nonlinearity
in
the
dye–polymer
system.
© 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
1.
Introduction
Electro-optic
(EO)
polymers
are
prospective
materials
with
many
favorable
merits
for
various
applications,
including
opti-
cal
network
components,
on-chip
optical
interconnects
[1–3],
microwave
photonics
and
others
[4–6].
They
have
specialties
of
large
EO
coefficients,
low
optical
loss
at
1.30
and
1.55
m
telecom-
munication
wavelengths,
low
dispersion
of
refractive
index
(RI)
between
optical
frequencies
and
millimeter
waves,
easy
to
pro-
cess
and
relatively
low
cost.
Nonlinear
polymers
and
chromophores
with
high
molecular
polarizability
have
been
designed,
tailored
and
introduced
from
molecular
engineering
both
theoretically
and
synthetically
[7–9].
However,
most
of
these
materials
are
not
com-
mercially
available
yet.
Consequently,
these
excellent
outcomes
of
molecular
engineering
are
incapable
of
playing
desirable
roles
∗
Corresponding
author.
Tel.:
+86
0431
851
680
97;
fax:
+86
0431
851
680
97.
E-mail
address:
wang
fei@jlu.edu.cn
(F.
Wang).
for
the
worldwide
development
of
organic
EO
devices.
Among
nonlinear
optical
systems,
guest–host
polymers
need
no
chem-
ical
attachment
of
chromophores
to
the
host
polymer
and
can
be
synthesized
at
a
lower
cost
than
any
other
systems,
including
side-chain,
cross-linked,
and
main-chain
polymers
that
are
syn-
thesized
with
more
complicated
reaction
[10–12].
Recently,
we
have
demonstrated
the
approach
to
overcome
disadvantages
of
guest–host
system
that
fast
decay
of
nonlinear
property
and
low
chromophores
concentration
by
using
a
high
glass
transition
tem-
perature
(T
g
)
host
polymer
SU-8
doped
with
organic
chromophores
Dispersed
Red
1
(DR1)
that
has
good
miscibility
with
SU-8
[13].
Practical
optical
waveguide
devices
require
the
active
layer
to
be
sandwiched
between
two
cladding
layers
[14].
For
EO
wave-
guide,
compatible
buffer
and
cladding
layers
are
necessary
for
light
guiding
in
the
active
core.
These
claddings
commonly
have
char-
acteristics
of
similar
thickness
with
the
active
layer,
relatively
low
optical
loss,
and
appropriate
RI
supporting
mode
propagation
[15].
Another
essential
request
for
the
sandwiched
layers
is
to
build
an
effective
poling
field
through
the
multilayer
geometry
to
achieve
0169-4332/$
–
see
front
matter ©
2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2013.08.079