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

Abstract

We report a novel phenomenon of photoisomerization-induced switch properties in liquid crystalline azo-benzene polymer poly{2-hydroetheyl methacrylate}-co-{6-[4-(S-2-methyl-1-butyloxycarbonylphenylazo) phenoxy]hexyl methacrylate} Langmuir–Blodgett (LB) monolayers. These monolayers were deposited on gold film and irradiated with UV (360 nm) and blue (450 nm) light. The switch properties were investigated by the surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technique. A method called photoinduced patterning was used for the fabrication of 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.