Photoinduced morphological changes and optical writing in a liquid crystalline polymer on the micron and sub-micron scale

In this paper we describe our recent work on optical effects due to photoinduced molecular reorientation in a side chain liquid crystalline polymer, namely azo-polymethacrylate (PMA4). We have studied several kinds of optical effects on space scales ranging from the nanoscopic to macroscopic. In particular, we have built a computer controlled microscope-based apparatus to study photoinduced effects, down to the micron scale in thin and ultrathin (Langmuir Blodgett) films of our material. Furthermore we measured the morphology and the photoinduced surface deformation by Atomic Force Microscopy in the submicron scale.