Photoswitching properties of photonic band gap materials containing azo-polymer liquid crystal

Masaki Moritsugu; Tomomi Shirota; Shoichi Kubo; Sun-nam Kim; Tomonari Ogata; Takamasa Nonaka; Osamu Sato; Seiji Kurihara

doi:10.1117/12.794633

27 August 2008 Photoswitching properties of photonic band gap materials containing azo-polymer liquid crystal

Masaki Moritsugu, Tomomi Shirota, Shoichi Kubo, Sun-nam Kim, Tomonari Ogata, Takamasa Nonaka, Osamu Sato, Seiji Kurihara

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 7050, Liquid Crystals XII; 705014 (2008) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.794633
Event: Photonic Devices + Applications, 2008, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

Photochemically tunable photonic band gap materials were prepared by infiltration of liquid crystal polymers having azobenzene groups into voids of SiO₂ inverse opal films. Linearly polarized light irradiation resulted in transformation from a random to an anisotropic molecular orientation of azobenzene side chains in the voids of the SiO₂ inverse opal film, leading to the reversible and stable shift of the reflection band to longer wavelength more than 15 nm. In order to improve switching properties, we used copolymers with azobenzene monomer and tolane monomer, which indicate higher birefringence, as infiltration materials into the voids. The azo-tolane copolymers were found to show the higher birefringence than azobenzene homopolymers by the linearly polarized light irradiation. Thus, the reflection band of the SiO₂ inverse opal film infiltrated with the azo-tolane copolymers was shifted to long wavelength region more than 55 nm by the irradiation of linearly polarized light.

Citation Download Citation

Masaki Moritsugu, Tomomi Shirota, Shoichi Kubo, Sun-nam Kim, Tomonari Ogata, Takamasa Nonaka, Osamu Sato, and Seiji Kurihara "Photoswitching properties of photonic band gap materials containing azo-polymer liquid crystal", Proc. SPIE 7050, Liquid Crystals XII, 705014 (27 August 2008); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.794633

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