Smart polymers for optical data storage

BLASCO, M. PINOL, C. BERGES, C. SAnCHEZ-SOMOLINOS and L. ORIOL, ICMA, CSIC-Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain 

Abstract Smart polymers based on photoresponsive azobenzene moieties have been extensively explored as potential materials for high capacity optical storage. This chapter reviews different strategies to incorporate azobenzenes into polymeric structures as well as their photoresponse properties. The potential of this type of materials as volume holographic media is summarized with special emphasis on block copolymers and blends. Although side-chain azopolymers has been the most investigated, new macromolecular architectures have been recently proposed and will be briefly presented. 

Key words azopolymers, block copolymers, photoresponsive, holographic 

Holographic storage is an alternative optical technology with significantly improved storage capacity and information transfer rates. Using a completely different approach, holography makes use of the whole volume 

The idea for holographic data storage arose in the early 1960s, but its commercial introduction has been a slow process. Despite the advances in systems design and materials, mainstream storage technologies have evolved 

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Smart polymers for optical data storage CuBr, PMDETA... 

Smart photoaddressable polymers containing azobenzene units have been actively investigated over more than two decades as media for optical data storage. Information can be recorded in these materials, through the effect of... 

Other complex architectures, such as azobenzene star polymers (Angiolini et al, 2006) and molecular brushes (Lee et al, 2006a), have also been prepared, although their optical data storage capabilities have not yet been explored. Advances in these new macromolecular architectures are generally based on the combination of CRP and click chemistry reactions as a synthetic tool for achieving more complex smart polymers. 

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