Absorption of polymers for optical waveguide applications measured by photothermal deflection spectroscopy

Abstract

A technique based on photothermal deflection spectroscopy has been developed for measuring the absolute absorption of polymers. The technique utilizes the frequency dependence measurement of the deflection signals to retrieve polymers' thermal properties and experimental parameters that are necessary to convert the deflection signals to the absolute absorption coefficients. All the measurements are done on the same experimental setup and the same sample without the need of obtaining either the materials' thermal properties or the reference absorption coefficients from other sources. This technique has been applied to several polymers and the results are reported.