| abstract |
An optical article is disclosed containing, for the transmission of electromagnetic radiation, a medium exhibiting a second order polarization susceptibility greater than 10- 9 electrostatic units comprised of a linear polymer containing as pendant groups polar aligned noncentrosymmetric molecular dipoles having an electron donor moiety linked through a conjugated π bonding system to an electron acceptor moiety to permit oscillation of the molecular dipole between a ground state exhibiting a first dipole moment and an excited state exhibiting a differing dipole moment. The linear polymer contains repeating units derived from vinyl addition polymerization, at least 5 percent of the repeating units incorporate the molecular dipoles as pendant groups, and the molecular dipoles include a sulfonyl electron acceptor moiety. |