Laser inscription of surface structures and induction of optical anisotropy in azo-benzene substituted photochromic polymers and other systems

Abstract

We present trial calculations of surface light-induced patterns in photochromic azo-substituted polymers. Using microscope with nanopositioning stage various birefringence and surface structures have been recorded in photochromic azo-functionalized polymers. By systematic approach to the inscription experiment and controlling cw or pulsed laser light intensity, its polarization and beam scan speed we observed the dynamics of molecular photoorientation and its relation to mass transport. We discuss properties of holographically inscribed polarization gratings and analyze them spatially by monitoring of microscopic local diffraction efficiency. We report how azo-benzene molecules can work in other systems, i.e. azobenzene functionalized POSS molecules embedded in nematic liquid crystal.

Design of Collective Motions from Synthetic Molecular Switches, Rotors, and Motors

“…It is possible to inscribe SRG by using interfering beams at different wavelengths − by adding “assisting beams” to increase the isomerization rate, , by using more than two interfering beams, and even when incoherent light is used. , Some examples used pulsed irradiation. − The interference can also be achieved when light is irradiated through a photomask. − Half-grating spacing has also been achieved by Miniewicz and coworkers when they used an s-/p- interference pattern that they attributed to the interference between the zeroth- and first-order scattered beams. Interestingly, elliptic interference patterns can be used to fabricate asymmetric SRG. − For instance, Kawatsuki et al experimented a variety of polarization interference patterns, and they observed the formation of blazed SRG when two orthogonal elliptically polarized light beams where used (Figure a).…”