Synthesis and Characterization of Methacrylate-based UV-crosslinkable Copolymers for Polymeric Optical Waveguides

Abstract

Fluorinated acrylic copolymers containing UV crosslinkabe pendant groups were synthesized and characterized. After the copolymerization of octafluoropentyl methacrylate (OFPMA) and hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA), crosslinkable pendant groups were introduced into the copolymer through the reactive groups of HEMA. The chemical structure, thermal stability, and optical properties of the UV-curable copolymers were investigated before and after UV-irradiation. The refractive indices of the crosslinked copolymers were in the range from 1.4500 to 1.4822, and channel waveguides were also fabricated by UV-embossing method.

Keywords:

• fluorinated acrylic copolymer
• polymer optical waveguide
• UV curing

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by KOSEF through OPERA (R11-2003-022).