Surface relief grating recording in azo polymer films

Investigation of the Surface Relief Grating formation on amorphous azobenzene polymer films

All-optical patterning of azo polymer films

Thin films of polymers containing non-linear optical chromophores based on azobenzene have been shown to respond mechanically to low power light interference, resulting in a transfer of an arbitrary optical pattern to surface relief in a single step, often well below the usual glass transition temperature. The timescale for this process is seconds to minutes, and the resulting surface relief pa...

Light induced conch-shaped relief in an azo-polymer film

We have discovered that a novel chiral structured surface relief (termed 'conch'-shaped surface relief) with a height of over 1 μm can be formed in an azo-polymer film merely by employing circularly polarized optical vortex irradiation with a total angular momentum of j = ±2. The temporal evolution of the conch-shaped surface relief in the azo-polymer film was also observed. The results provide...

Direct observation of athermal photofluidisation in azo-polymer films.

The surface relief gratings (SRGs) can be generated when azo-polymer films are exposed to laser beam interference as a result of mass migration. Despite considerable research effort over the past two decades this complex phenomenon remains incompletely understood. Here we show, for the first time, the athermal photofluidisation of azo-polysiloxane films exposed to 488 nm light, directly monitor...

Temperature modeling of laser-irradiated azo-polymer thin films.

Azobenzene polymer thin films exhibit reversible surface mass transport when irradiated with a light intensity and/or polarization gradient, although the exact mechanism remains unknown. In order to address the role of thermal effects in the surface relief grating formation process peculiar to azo polymers, a cellular automaton simulation was developed to model heat flow in thin films undergoin...