Polymers optical storage systems

The principle of using side chain liquid crystalline polymers as optical storage systems has been estabhshed. This has been demonstrated using a polymer film prepared from a side-chain polymer showing nematic hquid crystalline characteristics with the structure... 

Polymer-based photochromic systems have been studied extensively and are attractive in terms of practical applications because of their advantages of stability and processability. A number of reviews and articles dealing with various aspects of photochromic polymers and photoactive biomaterials have been published. 68 Chiral photochromic peptides are discussed in Chapter 13, and photochromic liquid crystals and polymers for holographic data storage and nonlinear optics have been reviewed. 69 Specific stereochemical effects in chiral photoresponsive polymers include ... 

They observed that the sample with a polyion backbone formed a smectic A phase with a focal conic fan texture and a perpendicular structure. On the other hand, the material based on the neutral backbone formed a nematic phase with a schlieren texture. Once again, the presence of charges in the polymer severely influenced the polymorphism of the compounds. The authors showed the potential of these LC systems in the fields of photomemory, optical storage, and light drive display, especially because these amphiphilic polymers yield excellent azodense LC thin films [96]. 

Finally, Part IV reviews miscellaneous technical developments that do not fit neatly into the scheme of the preceding parts. These concern, in particular, the application of polymers in the field of optical memories, treated in Chapter 12, which refers also to currently important data storage systems (compact disks, digital versatile disks, and blue-ray disks). Moreover, the application potential of polymers in the fields of photosensors and photocatalysts is outlined in Chapters 13 and 14, respectively. 

An electro-optic storage effect has been demonstrated in smecto-genic side chain polymer liquid crystals. The storage effect is observed above Tg and would appear to be a result of the high viscosity and bistable nature of these systems. The optical response times at temperatures of X SO C above ambient may be of the order of seconds or less. A number of factors that influence the response time have been identified ... 

Other fascinating future experiments may be contemplated based on the principles and methods presented here. Detailed study of the spectral diffusion process in crystals and polymers will help to eventually identify the actual microscopic nature of the two-level systems. The door is open to true photochemical experiments on single absorbers, quantum optics, and even the possibility of optical storage using single molecules [7]. Future efforts to increase the number of probe-host couples which allow SMS will lead to an even larger array of novel observations. 

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