P403
Photofabrication of Surface Relief Grating on Low-Tg and High-Tg Azo Polymers
Takashi Fukuda, Hiro Matsuda, Nirmal K. Viswanathan*, Sukant Tripathy*, Jayant Kumar*, Takao Shiraga** and Masao Kato**
NIMC, *U.Mass.Lowell, **Tokyo Sci. Univ.
Azobenzene functionalized polymers are very interesting and potentially useful materials for optical data storage, electro-optic modulation, optical switching and so on. On 1995, the photofabrication of surface relief grating (SRG) on films of azobenzene functionalized polymers has been first reported. Afterwards, it has attracted much attention both from a view point of practical use for optical device applications and from an academic interest. The mechanism for this phenomenon is of immense interest .
So far we have investigated photofabrication of SRG on maleimide-based high-Tg polymers with different degree of azobenzene functionalization, and a number of new insights into the fabrication process and chain dynamics were established.
We recently synthesized low-Tg azobenzene polymer in order to compare the photofabrication properties between low-Tg and high-Tg azobenzene polymers with different degree of functionalization. Here, the possible mechanism of the photofabrication of SRG on azobenzene polymers will be discussed based on several new experimental results.
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