Films formed from co-polymers containing azobenzene side groups

Abstract
Co-polymers of styrene-maleic anhydride have been synthesised with a number of different loadings of azobenzene-containing side groups and formed into thin films by casting and by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. By illumination with polarised white light, appropriately loaded materials cast as films could be transformed from isotropic to uniaxial structures that exhibited dichroism and birefringence of Delta n=0.21.