Photoelectric, nonlinear optical, and photorefractive properties of polymer composites based on supramolecular ensembles of Ru(II) and Ga(III) complexes with tetra-15-crown-5-phthalocyanine

Techniques of the production of polymer nanocomposites based on tetrapyrrole compounds with photoelectric, nonlinear optical, and photorefractive properties are considered. Supramolecular ensembles of Ru(II) and Ga(III) complexes with tetra-15-crown-5-phthalocyanine are found to form upon the deposition of thin films from tetrachloroethane solutions that have undergone several cycles of heating followed by slow cooling. The surface formation of supramolecular ensembles is studied with the use of atomic force microscopy. The assemblage is found to give rise to photoelectric and photorefractive sensitivity in the near-infrared range (measurements were carried out at 1064 and 1550 nm). The quantum yield of thermalized electron-hole pairs at 1064 nm in composites of polyvinyl carbazole and assembled Ga(III) complexes is 20 times as high as that in composites based on Ru(II) complexes. The largest two-beam coupling gain coefficient at 1064 nm (Γ = 120 cm−1 at E0 = 120 V/μm) was also observed for the Ga(III)-complex-containing composite. The third-order dielectric molecular susceptibility measured in tetrachloroethane solutions of the complexes weakly depends on the nature of the central atom and its axial neighborhood and falls in a range of γ = 4−5.2 × 10−32 esu.