Abstract—In the present work we aim to synthesize new conjugated polymers possessing a good nonlinear optical property (NLO) for applications in photonics. Herein we report the synthesis of a new donor-acceptor (D-A) type conjugated polymer consisting of 3, 4-propylenedioxythiophene, 1,3,4-oxadiazole and 3,4-diphenylthiophene units by following multistep reactions. The new polymer was characterized by using FTIR, 1H NMR, UV-vis, fluorescence spectroscopy, GPC followed by elemental analysis. The band gap of the polymer was calculated by cyclic voltammetric technique. Further, its NLO properties in THF solution were investigated by Z-scan technique using 532 nm, 7 ns laser pulses. The results indicate that polymer exhibit good optical limiting behavior due to effective two-photon absorption (TPA). The optical and electrochemical properties reveal that the polymer is a promising candidate for photonic applications.

Index Terms—Two-photon absorption, NLO, conjugated polymer, optical properties

The authors are with the National Institute of Technology Surathkal, Mangalore-547025 (e-mail: sunithams23@gmail.com, avachem@nitk.ac.in vishnukanive@gmail.com).

Cite: Sunitha M. S., Adhikari A. V., and Vishnumurthy K. A., "Nonlinear Optical Studies of a D-A Type Conjugated Polymer Containing Heterocyclic Moieties," International Journal of Applied Physics and Mathematics  vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 436-438, 2012.