Dichroism induced by photoisomerization of aniline tetramers in polymeric films

Optically induced dichroism is observed here for aniline tetramers disperse d in polycarbonate films. This effect is attributed to molecular reorientat ion of the tetramers upon photoisomerization. It is shown that the reorient ation process saturates with light intensity and its time evolution is biex ponential. However, the optical data storage capability of this system is l imited by the small amount of anisotropy conserved after relaxation. Improv ement is believed to be possible by attaching the aniline tetramer as a sid e chain to the polymer backbone.