Abstract

Ease of processing, desirable mechanical properties, and lower optical loss than many inorganic crystals makes organic polymers attractive materials for optical and optoelectronic applications. Consequently, there has been great interest^1,2 in the electrical and photoconductive properties of conjugated polymers, spurred by the seminal work of Heeger, MacDiarmid, and Shirakawa in 1976.³ Fast time-resolved measurements of transient photoconductivity in polymers offers the possibility of studying carrier generation and transport. Ultrafast transient photoconductive switching devices can be used in high-speed photo-detectors as well as in photonics applications⁴. In this paper we present the results of fast transient photoconductivity measurements on a photoconductive switch based on BAMH-PPV⁵ as shown in Figure 1. The ultrafast decay time of 20 ps was bandwidth limited by the test system.

© 2003 Optical Society of America