Subsecond grating growth in a photorefractive polymer

We survey the dynamics of the photorefractive effect in a methyl methacrylate copolymer with the nonlinear chromophore p-nitroaniline in a pendant side group doped with a charge-transport agent, diethylaminobenzaldehyde diphenylhydrazone, a material that represents a new class of photorefractive polymer. The grating growth times are several orders of magnitude smaller than that for the previous epoxy-based photorefractive polymers and fall below 1 s at the highest intensities used. Grating competition and revelation effects suggest that charge carriers other than photogenerated holes are mobile. A sublinear dependence of growth rate on writing intensity implies that shallow traps may also be present.