A density grating buried under a smooth surface is reported for an azobenzene-containing polymer film. The grating is formed by annealing a polymer sample pre-inscribed with a surface grating for several hours above Tg, creating a lateral density difference on the order of 10 %. It is shown that the rate of the process can be influenced by the intensity and polarization of the probe laser. Growth of photoinduced liquid–crystalline aggregates is proposed as the most probable explanation for the observed behavior.
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Pietsch et al. (2000) studied this question.
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