Periodic surface photoreliefs in glassy and hyperelastic polymers

The formation and degradation of periodic photoreliefs on the surface of po lymer layers having significantly different glass-transition temperatures a re investigated for various process activation temperatures. It is establis hed that the main factor limiting the resolution of periodic relaxation pho toreliefs at the surface of glassy polymer layers containing dimerizing ant hracene derivatives is the presence of shear stresses. Their action is supp ressed by the thermal decomposition of dimers, a process which gives rise t o inverted reliefs of higher spatial frequencies. It is shown that the reso lution can be enhanced by more than an order of magnitude by using a polyme r matrix in the hyperelastic state. (C) 1999 American Institute of Physics. [S1063-7842(99)01508-1].