Here, we will show photo-induced supramolecular chirality in thin films of achiral amorphous polymers with azo groups in their side-chain. A matter of particular interest is the effect of various film thicknesses on azimuthal rotation and ellipticity of incident/transmitted polarized light. Furthermore, we investigated the temporal stability of inscribed chirality. By polarimetric measurements, we found out that the azimuthal rotation gets higher with layer thickness. In this scope, we were able to measure a very high azimuthal rotation of Δψ/d=112.5∘/μm. The inscribed chirality was stable for several days. Furthermore, we investigated the time-resolved behavior of incident and transmitted polarization ellipticities for various thicknesses. The time dependency may be explained by a two-step process: (1) fast trans-cis-isomerization resulting in photo-orientation and (2) slow photo-induced mass flow.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.