Photoinduced anisotropy in an azo-containing ionic liquid–crystalline polymer

✍ Scribed by Xu Pan; Sufang Xiao; Changshun Wang; Peng Cai; Xuemin Lu; Qinghua Lu

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2009
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 531 KB
• Volume: 282
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0030-4018
• DOI: 10.1016/j.optcom.2008.11.013

✦ Synopsis

Photoinduced anisotropy in an azobenzene ionic liquid-crystalline polymer was investigated through dichroism, birefringence and polarization holography. A dichroism degree of 1.58 and a birefringence value Dn $ 10 À2 were achieved in the polymer film at room temperature, and the polymer film was found to possess the characteristics of reversible and long-term optical storage. Particularly the stored birefringence could be enhanced to Dn $ 10 À1 by annealing the film, and it is attributed to the thermal self-organization of the molecules. Furthermore, linear-and circular-polarization holographic recordings were accomplished in the polymer film and pure polarization gratings were produced.