Second-order nonlinear optical properties of mexylaminotriazine-functionalized glass-forming azobenzene derivatives

The second-order nonlinear optical coefficients of thin films of mexylaminotriazine-functionalized azobenzene molecular glass derivatives were measured using second harmonic generation. The thin films were poled using a custom corona poling set-up and the second harmonic light from a pulsed 1064-nm laser was detected. Four out of the six tested compounds showed optical nonlinearity and a maximum coefficient of 75 pm/V was obtained. The time dependence of the nonlinear coefficients was studied under ambient light and under dark; the second harmonic generation intensity stayed constant for thiazole-containing derivatives while a significant decay was measured for the other compounds.