Molecular engineering of nonlinear optical polymer thin films for ultrashort optical pulse diagnostics

We discuss the molecular engineering of a second order nonlinear optical (NLO) polymer materials specifically for ultrashort optical pulse diagnostics. We use second harmonic generation (SHG) frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) to measure the amplitude and phase of an ultrashort pulse. It is shown that thin poled TCV/PMMA are sufficiently nonlinear and robust to be used in Ti:Sapphire ultrashort pulse diagnostics. Since such thin NLO films are not limited by phasematching they hold great promise for extremely short pulse diagnostics.