Issue 29, 2012
From the journal:

Journal of Materials Chemistry

All-optical pulsed writing in azobenzenecopolymer films in the sub-millisecond regime†

Sara Menghetti,a   Michele Alderighi,a   Giancarlo Galli,*a   Francesco Tantussi,b   Massimo Morandini,b   Francesco Fusob  and  Maria Allegrinib  

* Corresponding authors

a Dipartimento di Chimica e Chimica Industriale, UdR INSTM Pisa, Università di Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy
E-mail: gallig@dcci.unipi.it

b Dipartimento di Fisica ‘Enrico Fermi’ and CNISM, Università di Pisa, 56127 Pisa, Italy

Abstract

Block copolymers P(MA4-block-MMA)10 and P(MA4-block-MMA)20 and a random copolymer P(MA4-ran-MMA)10 were prepared from azobenzene methacrylate (MA4) and methyl methacrylate (MMA). The former monomer was introduced as both a photoresponsive and a mesogenic component, and the latter as a transparent non-mesogenic component. Thin films of the copolymers were used to investigate all-optical writing by linear-polarized illumination in the pulsed regime to modify the local birefringence at the microscopic scale. The optical properties of P(MA4-block-MMA)10 were compared with those of P(MA4-ran-MMA)10 having the same chemical composition (10 mol% MA4) but different distributions of the two components. It was found that in the block copolymers relatively intense pulses as short as 100 μs produced a remarkable local increase in the birefringence, stable in the time-scale (up to several days) explored in the experiment. In contrast, efficient and stable optical modifications could not be achieved in the random copolymer.

Graphical abstract: All-optical pulsed writing in azobenzene copolymer films in the sub-millisecond regime

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2JM30596H
Article type
Paper
Submitted
31 Jan 2012
Accepted
16 May 2012
First published
17 May 2012

J. Mater. Chem., 2012,22, 14510-14517

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All-optical pulsed writing in azobenzene copolymer films in the sub-millisecond regime

S. Menghetti, M. Alderighi, G. Galli, F. Tantussi, M. Morandini, F. Fuso and M. Allegrini, J. Mater. Chem., 2012, 22, 14510 DOI: 10.1039/C2JM30596H

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