Polymeric second-order nonlinear optical materials are being developed for commercialization in a wide variety of technologies. Included in these are next generation fiber and satellite telecommunications, optical gyroscopes, phased array radar, electromagnetic sensing, beam steering applications, back-plane interconnects and micro and millimeter wave signal generation. Lumera Corporation, in collaboration with University of Washington faculty members, Prof. Larry Dalton and Prof. Alex Jen, seeks to develop new nonlinear optical materials with an emphasis on the improving processing and materials characteristics. In particular, we will initially employ new synthetic methodology developed by Londergan and Dalton where dendritic molecules are constructed. Dendritic NLO molecules have been shown to increase the efficiency of the electric field poling, which ultimately translate into an increase in electro-optic activity. In order to achieve low VÄ (<0.5 V) electro-optic modulation, it is necessary to design and synthesize new materials which take into account the molecular shape. The design methodology employed by Lumera lends itself to incorporate various functionality into the materials, such as partial fluorination (leading to low intrinsic optical loss at 1.55 mm) and reactive hydroxyl groups (giving a well-established lattice hardening mechanism via polyurethane chemistry).
