Synthesis and Characterization of a New Photoconducting Poly(siloxane) Having Pendant Diphenylhydrazone for Photorefractive Applications

A new photoconducting polymer, diphenyl hydrazone-substituted polysiloxane, was successfully synthesized by the hydrosilylation method and characterized by FT-IR, $^1$H-NMR, and $^{29}$ Si-NMR spectroscopy. The glass transition temperature (T$_{g}$) of the polysiloxane having pendant diphenyl hydrazone was ca. 62 $^{\circ}C$, which enabled a component of a low-T$_{g}$ photorefractive material to be prepared without the addition of any plasticizers. This polysiloxane, with 1 wt% of $C_{60}$ dopant, showed a high photoconductivity (2.8 ${\times}$ 10$^{-12}$ S/cm at 70 V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) at 633 nm, which is necessary for fast build-up of the space-charge field. A photorefractive composite was prepared by adding a nonlinear optical chromophore, 2-{3-[2-(dibutylamino)-1-ethenyl]-5,5-dimethyl-2-cyclohexenylidene} malononitrile, into the photoconducting polysiloxane together with $C_{60}$ . This composite shows a large orientation birefringence ($\Delta$n = 2.6 ${\times}$ 10$^{-3}$ at 50 V/${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$) and a high diffraction efficiency of 81 % at an electric field of 40 V /${\mu}{\textrm}{m}$.textrm}{m}$.EX>.