Abstract

Amorphous high glass transition polymer films containing electron-donor electron-acceptor substituted azobenzene groups can be used as materials for reversible optical storage¹. A polarized argon laser beam is used for "writing" while a low power HeNe laser can "read" the resulting oriented regions, and irradiation with circularly polarized light destroys the order, effectively "erasing" the signal. As orientation is induced by a series of trans-cis-trans isomerizations of the azo groups, writing speeds and efficiencies depend on the rates of these isomerizations. Films of a series of azo polymers used for reversible optical storage were prepared and irradiated in order to study the thermal cis-trans isomerization rates.

© 1993 Optical Society of America