Transparent chiral polymers for optical applications

Abstract

Optically active chiral polymers and copolymers of cholesteryl methacrylate have been studied for use in optical applications including plastic optical fibers. Homopolymers of chiral cholesteryl methacrylate with differing molecular weights and copolymers with methyl methacrylate were synthesized by free-radical copolymerization in tetrahydrofuran using azobisisobutyronitrile at 67°C for 26 h. All polymers were characterized for molecular weight, glass-transition temperature, optical rotation, transparency, and refractive index and solution blended to test for compatibility with poly(methyl methacrylate). Such chiral materials are of particular interest because they offer useful polarization properties without requiring bulk orientation of the molecules. This makes it possible to produce low cost optical elements such as circularly birefringent or circularly polarizing optical elements with potential applications in polarization manipulations and sensing. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 98: 58 -65, 2005

Consideration of chiral optical fibres

“…Very little literature exists that considers the use of chiral polymers in such applications, and one notable report is on the copolymerisation of methyl methacrylate (the monomer for commonly-used polymethylmethacrylate, PMMA) and cholesteryl methacrylate [12]. This approach was deemed inappropriate for this work, as only one handedness of cholesteryl methacrylate would be easily available, and it was difficult to ascertain the transparency of this polymer.…”

Menthol-based chiral copolymers for polymer optical fibres (POF)

“…2 Another technique to introduce circular birefringence in optical fibres is via the use of chiral materials. 3 The majority of chiral materials are organic and incompatible with the processing temperatures of glass optical fibres (i.e. 1800 C).…”