Surface plasmon resonance research on photoinduced switch properties of liquid crystalline azobenzene polymer Langmuir-Blodgett films

We report a novel phenomenon of photoisomerization-induced switch propertie s in liquid crystalline azobenzene polymer poly 2-hydroetheyl methacrylate) -co-(6-[4-(S-2-methyl-1-butyloxycarbonylphenylazo) phenoxy]hexyl methacryla te) Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers. These monolayers were deposited on g old film and irradiated with UV (360 nm) and blue (450 nm) light. The switc h properties were investigated by the surface plasmon resonance (SPR techni que. A method called photoinduced patterning was used for the fabrication o f a model molecular device. It has been found that the photoinduced process of writing and erasing in such devices can be repeated for tens of cycles. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Limited. All rights reserved.