Photosensitive response of azobenzene containing films towards pure intensity or polarization interference patterns

Abstract

Active control of surface plasmon polaritons by optical isomerization of an azobenzene polymer film Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 101102 (2009); 10.1063/1.3225156 Photoinduced inclination of polyimide molecules containing azobenzene in the backbone structure

Photomechanical Energy Transfer to Photopassive Polymers through Hydrogen and Halogen Bonds

“…This result is consistent with previous observations for polymers containing covalently bonded azobenzene side chains 42 and is not necessarily a consequence of the supramolecular nature of the complexes. It thus indicates that the picture in which the photo-orientation of the side-chain azobenzene directly translates into rotation of the polymer backbone, often hypothesized in the literature, 43,44 is a simplification and suggests that a polymer with less rotational freedom than P4VP may be optimal for motion transfer. For instance, for a semicrystalline azopolymer in which the azo group is covalently bonded to the main chain without a spacer, an efficient translation of orientation from the side chains to the backbone resulted in impressive birefringence.…”

Photoreversible Soft Azo Dye Materials: Toward Optical Control of Bio‐Interfaces

“…A sinusoidal pattern of light interference at the sample surface led to a sinusoidal‐shaped surface relief topology pattern, then referred to as a surface relief grating (SRG), as light diffraction is how the topological features were most easily monitored during inscription. However, the azo‐initiated surface mass transport is not limited to just parallel line gratings, and can instead produce arbitrary complex structures, directed by the patterns of spatial intensity and polarization of the incident light . Hence, this all‐optical patterning phenomenon might more generally and accurately be called photopatterning, phototransport, or photomorphing.…”

Stacks of Azobenzene Stars: Self-Assembly Scenario and Stabilising Forces Quantified in Computer Modelling

“…On the one side, such molecules combine mesomorphism and photoswitching [6][7][8], can more effectively reply to the light stimulus (for example, during inscribing a surface relief grating) as compared to monomeric azos. On the other side, they can be readily synthesized and purified, be either evaporated or cast from solution, build stable amorphous phases and exhibit more uniform physical properties, and there is no dilution of chromophores or the effects coming from entanglements unlike azo-photochromic polymers and composite polymer systems [9,10]. Star-shaped azos are also different from linear or cyclic azo n-mers with the same number of azo-fragments (trimers, tetramers, etc.).…”

“…There are several classifications of star-shaped azos: they may differ in (i) the number of arms (three [9,10,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20], four [7,21,22], six [23][24][25], nine [26]), (ii) in their centres (nitrogen [9,19], phosphorus [27], silicon [28] or carbon atoms [21,22], benzene [14,16,20,[29][30][31][32], polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [25,33], heterocyclic hydrocarbons [34][35][36][37], some chiral groups [6] or bio-active residues [38]), (iii) in the way azobenzenes are attached to the centre (covalently or noncovalently [39]), (iv) in their conformational rigidity (flexible or rigid), (v) in their overall geometry (quasi-planar or 3D). Both the conformational rigidity and the shape of the star are closely related to the chemical nature of the star core, for instance, the planar conjugated fragment in the absence of any fatty linkers between the centre and the azobenzene arms supports the planarity of the star and its rigidity, and vice versa, long hydrocarbon linkers provokes its conformational flexibility [8,30,31].…”