Novel photorecording langmuir‐blodgett films

A photocontrolled reaction of Langmuir‐Blodgett (LB) films with transition metal ions is demonstrated to be suitable as the basis of a new method of photorecording. The setup required for recording is described and experiments on TARC18 and PARC18 films (a thiazolylazophenol and a pyridylazophenol derivative, respectively) are reported. Advantages compared to previously known techniques of photorecording in LB films are pointed out, for example, that differently colored states can be achieved with a single chelating reagent simply by changing the metal ions.