Photoinduced surface wrinkling is demonstrated for a low molecular azo compound confined between a substrate and a thin inorganic elastic layer. The wrinkling process is investigated by time-resolved light scattering as well as by two-dimensional autocorrelation analysis of microscopic images. It is shown that the temporal evolution of the wrinkling pattern is directly controlled by the amount of photons absorbed by the sample and that there is no significant dependence of the equilibrium wavelength on irradiation intensity. Finally, the comparison of thermal and photoinduced wrinkling revealed that photoinduced wrinkles are characterized by a narrower mode distribution and less coarsening.

We present electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical data for the bipolar azo compound N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis[4-(phenylazo)phenyl]-4,4'diaminobiphenyl (AZOPD) demonstrating reversible bipolar redox behaviour with a bandgap of 2.1 eV. The reduced species formed upon two-electron transfer can be described as bis(radical anion) as was confirmed by comparison with a reference compound with only one azo chromophore. Hole and electron transport behaviour in amorphous films was demonstrated by the fabrication of organic field-effect transistors using gold and magnesium contacts, respectively. The transistors are sensitive to light due to E-Z photoisomerization.