Azobenzene undergoes trans → cisisomerization when irradiated with light tuned to an appropriate wavelength. The reverse cis →transisomerization can be driven by light or occurs thermally in the dark. Azobenzene's photochromatic properties make it an ideal component of numerous molecular devices and functional materials. Despite the abundance of application-driven research, azobenzene photochemistry and the isomerization mechanism remain topics of investigation. Additional substituents on the azobenzene ring system change the spectroscopic properties and isomerization mechanism. This critical review details the studies completed to date on the 3 main classes of azobenzene derivatives. Understanding the differences in photochemistry, which originate from substitution, is imperative in exploiting azobenzene in the desired applications.

Photoisomerization in different classes of azobenzene

Organic (opto)electronic materials have received considerable attention due to their applications in thin-film-transistors, light-emitting diodes, solar cells, sensors, photorefractive devices, and many others. The technological promises include low cost of these materials and the possibility of their room-temperature deposition from solution on large-area and/or flexible substrates. The article reviews the current understanding of the physical mechanisms that determine the (opto)electronic properties of high-performance organic materials. The focus of the review is on photoinduced processes and on electronic properties important for optoelectronic applications relying on charge carrier photogeneration. Additionally, it highlights the capabilities of various experimental techniques for characterization of these materials, summarizes top-of-the-line device performance, and outlines recent trends in the further development of the field. The properties of materials based both on small molecules and on conjug...

Organic Optoelectronic Materials: Mechanisms and Applications

The ability of nonlinear optical materials to transmit, process and store information forms the basis of emerging optoelectronic and photonic technologies. Organic chromophore-containing polymers, in which the refractive index can be controlled by light or an electric field, are expected to play an important role.

Design and synthesis of chromophores and polymers for electro-optic and photorefractive applications

A new field of organic materials science that deals with amorphous molecular glasses has been opened up. In addition, amorphous molecular materials have constituted a new class of functional organic materials for use in various applications. This article is focused on the recent progress of studies on photo- and electroactive amorphous molecular materials, highlighting photochromic amorphous molecular materials, amorphous molecular resists, and amorphous molecular materials for use in devices such as organic EL devices. The molecular design concepts, syntheses, reactions, molecular and solid-state properties, functions, and device fabrication and performance are described.

Photo- and electroactive amorphous molecular materials—molecular design, syntheses, reactions, properties, and applications

Lessons from nature: stimuli-responsive polymers and their biomedical applications

We demonstrate that recording thick holographic phase gratings in photorefractive polymers can lead not only to very efficient Bragg diffraction but also to rather strong diffraction into non-Bragg orders. We show that this effect has features drastically different from those of Raman–Nath diffraction on thin gratings. We compare the experimental results with a model based on the theory of dynamic self-diffraction in a photorefractive medium. Applications of this effect in devices for optical image processing are proposed.

Non-Bragg orders in dynamic self-diffraction on thick phase gratings in a photorefractive polymer.

We present a consistent experimental and theoretical study of non-Bragg orders observed in dynamic self-diffraction on thick phase holograms in a photorefractive polymer that showed a strong refractive-index modulation amplitude. We demonstrate experimentally how the diffraction into non-Bragg orders can be used for image processing and as an independent evaluation method for the optical–photorefractive properties of the polymers.

Study of non-Bragg orders in dynamic self-diffraction in a photorefractive polymer: experiment, theory, and applications

Nonlinear photorefractive polymers

A low cost, low power compact optical correlator is demonstrated. It operates interchangeably in the matched-filter or joint-transform configurations. The active medium is a high diffraction efficiency photorefractive host–guest polymer system. Successful image correlation has been achieved.

Compact, low power polymer-based optical correlator

The studies of the photorefractive properties of the two polymer composites based on poly(N-vinylcarbazole) (PVK) are reported. The polymers were obtained by doping PVK with 2,4,7 trinitro-9- fluorenone as a sensitizer agent and two different azo dyes as nonlinear chromophores. Best results were obtained for the polymer doped with 2,5-dimethyl-4-p-nitrophenylazoanisole, which showed a maximum diffraction efficiency of 34% at 40 V/micrometers external electric field strength in 105 micrometers thick samples. The influence of different geometries of the hologram writing- retrieval on the diffraction efficiency is described. Net amplification of one of the writing beams in two-beam coupling within the material has been observed. Recording of the holograms of 2-dimensional objects in real time has been demonstrated with good resolution and image brightness. All the results were obtained with a low power visible laser diode emitting at 675 nm.

B. L. Volodin

Papers

Non-Bragg orders in dynamic self-diffraction on thick phase gratings in a photorefractive polymer.

Study of non-Bragg orders in dynamic self-diffraction in a photorefractive polymer: experiment, theory, and applications

Nonlinear photorefractive polymers

Compact, low power polymer-based optical correlator

AZO dye-doped photorefractive polymers