Hi James,

A film that absorbs water may change in thickness as well as refractive
index - important to consider if you're making optical measurements of a
film or making structures like waveguides.  How large of a change in
refractive index are you looking for, and what humidity range do you have to
work with?  In principle, I would think that any polymer which absorbs water
would exhibit a different refractive index after absorption.


Brian C. Stahl
Graduate Student Researcher
UCSB Materials Research Laboratory
brian.stahl@gmail.com / bstahl@mrl.ucsb.edu
Cell: (805) 748-5839
Office: MRL 3117A


On Mon, Dec 13, 2010 at 4:13 AM, James Paul Grant wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> I'm looking for a polymer which I can spin on, is transparent to visible
> light but whose film properties, such as the refractive index, change with
> time e.g. water absorption into the film.
>
> Does anyone know such a polymer?
>
> Thanks,
>
> James