Thermally reversibly crosslinkable polymer as cladding material for electro-optic devices
AssigneeUniversity of Washington
InventorsKwan-Yue Jen, Jingdong Luo, Sen Liu
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Abstract
A polymeric cladding material, cladded waveguides, devices that include cladded waveguides, and methods for using the cladding material. The polymeric cladding material is a thermally reversibly crosslinkable polymer having high conductivity above its glass transition temperature.
Claims22
A waveguide cladding, comprising a thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer adjacent to a waveguide having a refractive index greater than the thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer.
A cladded waveguide, comprising:
- (a) a waveguide;
- and
- (b) a cladding, comprising a thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer, wherein the cladding is adapted to provide internal reflectance of light transmitted through the waveguide.
An electro-optic device, comprising a cladded waveguide comprising:
- (a) a waveguide;
- (b) a cladding adjacent to the waveguide, comprising a thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer;
- and
- (c) one or more electrodes.
An electro-optic device, comprising:
- (a) a first electrode;
- (b) a second electrode;
- (c) a waveguide intermediate the first and second electrodes, wherein the waveguide comprises an alignable nonlinear optically active material;
- (d) a first cladding intermediate the waveguide and the first electrode, wherein the first cladding comprises a thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer;
- and
- (e) a second cladding intermediate the waveguide and the second electrode, wherein the second cladding comprises a thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer.
A method for aligning a nonlinear optically active material in a waveguide by electric field poling, comprising:
- (a) heating a cladded waveguide to the waveguide's glass transition temperature, the cladded waveguide comprising:
- (i) a waveguide comprising an alignable nonlinear optically active material;
- and
- (ii) a cladding comprising a thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer;
- (b) applying an electric field to the cladded waveguide thereby aligning at least a portion of the alignable nonlinear optically active material;
- and
- (c) cooling the cladded waveguide to provide a waveguide having aligned nonlinear optically active material.
A thermally reversibly crosslinkable polymer, consisting essentially of
- (a) one or more diene moieties;
- and
- (b) one or more dienophile or dienophile precursor moieties;
- wherein the diene and dienophile moieties are pendant from a polymer backbone and are reactive to form 4+2 cycloaddition moieties to provide a crosslinked polymer, wherein the 4+2 cycloaddition moieties revert to their corresponding diene and dienophile moieties on heating the crosslinked polymer above its glass transition temperature.
A thermally reversibly crosslinked polymer, consisting essentially of one or more 4+2 cycloaddition moieties;
- wherein the 4+2 cycloaddition moieties are reversibly, thermally reactive to provide a polymer consisting essentially of diene moieties and dienophile moieties pendant from a polymer backbone.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.