Organic Photonic Materials for All-Optical Signal Processing

Processable conjugated organic materials with large nonlinearity, ultrafast response and low loss in the near-IR (NIR) are of interest for all-optical signal/image processing and sensor protection applications. For all-optical signal switching, materials with a large magnitude of the third-order nonlinearity (χ(3)) and a high ratio of Re(χ(3))/Im(χ(3)) are needed for effective optical switching, while for sensor protection, materials with a large Im(χ(3)) or higher-order nonlinear absorption coefficient are of particular interest. Recent progress in the development organic χ(3) materials for all optical switching and limiting will be discussed.