Photoinduced electrooptics in the In2O3 nanocrystals incorporated into PMMA matrixes

We have observed an appearance of clear morphological structure in composites containing In2O3 nanocrystals (NCs) incorporated into polymethyl methacrylite (PMMA) matrices under optical treatment by a polarized femtosecond laser. The initial photoinduced treatment was carried out using a Ti:sapphire femtosecond laser emitting 140 fs p-polarized light at a maximum spectral wavelength 775 nm with pulse repetition 1 kHz. It was found that the average morphological radius is varied maximally only during illumination at liquid helium temperature (T = 4.2 K). The morphological average mean radius is strictly dependent on the sizes of incorporated In2O3 NCs. Afterwards we measured the linear electrooptic effect at cw He–Ne laser wavelength 633 nm during simultaneous treatment by 1060 and 530 nm coherent beams of a Nd–YAG picosecond laser. We have established that a decrease of the average morphological mean radius favours an increase of the optically poled linear electrooptic coefficient. The diameters of In2O3 NCs were evaluated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and light-scattering techniques, whereas the NC sizes and morphological average mean radius of formed nanocomposites were estimated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). A relationship between the diameter of the NC, composite morphological mean average radius and effective linear electrooptic coefficient was established. (Some figures in this article are in colour only in the electronic version) 0953-8984/07/016204+10$30.00 © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK 1 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 19 (2007) 016204 I V Kityk et al