SWITCHING OF OPTICAL-PROPERTIES IN ZEOLITIC NANOCOMPOSITES

The guest molecule azobenzene is aligned nearly perfectly by the chann els of the molecular sieve AIPO(4)-5. After irradiation with light of the wavelength 360 nn the configuration and the orientation of the mol ecules are changed. This results in changes of the refractive index. I t turns out that this reaction is reversible (back reaction by irradia tion with 436 nm) and that the change of the birefringence can be very large (Delta n' = 0.033). It is demonstrated that a crystal of a thic kness of 13 mu m is sufficient to be switched between a lambda-plate a nd a lambda/2-plate. This is an example of an opto-optical microswitch .