title: Electro-optical microscopy: mapping nonlinear polymer films with micrometric resolution.
abstract: The first demonstration, to the best of our knowledge, of electro-optical microscopy is presented and applied to a polymer-based optical device. A confocal transmission microscope with interferometric homodyne detection is implemented to measure Pockels phase shifts with micrometric spatial resolution and an accuracy level down to 4 x 10(-7) rad. This technique is applied to poled polymer films in which noncentrosymmetric molecular orientation is preliminarily achieved in the sample plane between transverse planar electrodes. The electro-optic mapping of this structure exhibits nonuniform and asymmetric patterns of the nonlinear response that are characteristic of the poling spatial inhomogeneity as confirmed by second-harmonic generation microscopy.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Photonique Quantique et Moléculaire (CNRS UMR 8537), Insitut d'Alembert, Ecole normale supérieure de Cachan, France. toury@lpqm.ens-cachan.fr
authors.forename: Timothée
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Toury
authors.forename: Sophie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Brasselet
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zyss