Maker fringe measurements of non-poled ionic self-assembled thin films

Maker fringe patterns of polymeric thin films containing an organic ionic pyrylium salt dye are presented. Waveguides were fabricated by spin-coating a monomeric chromophore and by the ionic self assembled monolayer (ISAM) technique using a polymer. Poling was not required for either technique as the material was naturally self-aligning. The ISAM technique, is shown to produce optically robust nonlinear optical waveguides with flexible design parameters. Furthermore, the pyrylium salt dye exhibits low absorption in the neighborhood of 450 nm, thus providing a blue window for frequency conversion applications by anomalous dispersion phase- matching.