Zero-birefringence photosensitive poly(arylene ether) for optical waveguides

摘要

Novel photosensitive fluorinated poly(arylene ether) containing chalcone unit (F-PAECh) in the main chain was synthesized from decafluorinated chalcone and fluorinated bisphenol at low temperature for polymer optical waveguide application. Upon UV irradiation on the resulting polymer film, [2+2] cycloaddition of chalocone moiety induced the anisotropic decrease of the refractive indices (n_(TE) and n_(TM)) accompanied with crosslinking of polymer film. The decrease was more significant in in-plane direction than out-of-plane direction, and consequently, zero birefringence was obtained with 4.5 min of exposure. Zero-birefringence as well as its excellent optical properties of F-PAECh makes it a promising candidate material for use in high-performance wavelength division multiplexing components such as polarization-independent arrayed waveguide gratings and Bragg wavelength filters.