Key points are not available for this paper at this time.
Large and stable photoinduced birefringenceis observed in thin films of Congo red (CR, see Figure) and poly(dimethyldiallylammonium chloride) (PDAC, see Figure), fabricated by electrostatic sequential absorption. Investigations indicate that only a small contribution to the birefringence is from photoinduced alignment of the azobenzene chromophores, the larger contribution being attributed to polarization-selective degradation.
Bian et al. (2000) studied this question.