Chiral liquid crystalline azobenzene polymers demonstrate efficient spectral response to UV and visible light, suggesting new photo-recording applications.
Two photosensitive chiral liquid crystalline (LC) azobenzene-containing polymethacrylates having different length of flexible spacer connecting chromophores with backbone spacer were synthesized and their phase behaviour and photo-optical properties were studied. It is shown, that smectic phase (SmA*) formation in films of polymer with longer spacer predetermines quite its unusual spectral response to UV and subsequent visible light actions. The SmA* phase promotes spontaneous homeotropic alignment of azobenzene chromophores in polymer films. UV-irradiation induces not only E-Z isomerization, but also results in disruption of homeotropic alignment, whereas subsequent visible light action enables to obtain films with the low degree of chromophores orientation. The possibility of using red polarized light of moderate intensity for optical photo-recording on polymer films is demonstrated.
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Bobrovsky et al. (2016) studied this question.
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