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Light tunable azopolymers : Photomechanical phenomena and multifunctional

materials

Conference Paper · May 2019

DOI: 10.1109/PN.2019.8819540

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 Light tunable azopolymers
Photomechanical phenomena and multifunctional materials

Filippo Fabbri1, Sylvain Chevalier2, Khalid Lahlil2, Olivier Lefebvre1, David Bouville1, Yves Lassailly2, Lucio Martinelli2,
Ahn DucVu2, Thierry Gacoin2, Jacques Peretti2, Jessy Frech-Baronet3, Zhao Chen3, Mario Fafard3, Luca Sorelli3
1
Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, Université Paris-Sud / Paris-Saclay / CNRS, Palaiseau (FR)
2
Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée, Ecole Polytechnique / CNRS, Palaiseau (FR)
3
Département de génie civil et génie des eaux, Université Laval, Pavillon Adrien-Pouliot, Québec (Québec, CA).

Abstract— Light tunable materials such as azobenzene-
containing polymers are nowadays a promising way to achieve
optical control of matter up to the nanoscale. In particular, the
materials’ optical and mechanical responses can be tuned by
controlling the spatial and temporal distribution of the projected
light field, which allows to achieve precise, reversible
manipulation, in real-time, of the materials’ response. The
understanding of the photomechanical phenomena occurring in
azopolymers will be discussed as well as their applications as
multifunctional materials.
Keywords — photoactive polymers; azobenzene; thin films;
matter transport; photo-softening; nanofabrication; nano-optics;
plasmonics; sol-gel; multifunctional optical materials; optical
actuation; optical tuning; local probe characterization.
I. INTRODUCTION
Materials incorporating azobenzene derivatives exhibit
quite unique photomechanical responses in addition to their
photochromic properties. Indeed, illumination in the absorption
band of the chromophores excites the photoisomerization of
material stiffness and viscosity without thermal processing [7-
11]. This opens the way to new techniques of optically
controlled moulding, such as athermal light-driven
nanoimprinting, thus offering new paths for light-controlled
(nano)fabrication.
III. APPLICATIONS
Potential applications have been demonstrated in various
fields such as hybrid materials nanofabrication, nano-optics,
plasmonics and photonics towards all-optical devices for
optical communications and computing. Photo-adjustable
grating couplers, narrow band tunable wavelength filters and
polarization separators, as well as optically tunable fiber and
photonic crystal waveguides have been obtained [12-17]. Also,
challenging new application fields such as solar cells [18], bio-
actuation [19] and cell manipulation [20] have been recently
proposed, confirming the wide technological interest for this
emerging class of multifunctional materials.
[1] P. Rochon, E. Batalla, and A. Natansohn, App. Phys. Lett. 66, 136 (1995)

the azobenzene moieties and produces significant deformations [2] D. Y. Kim, S. K. Tripathy, L. Li, and J. Kumar, App. Phys. Lett. 66, 1166 (1995)

of the host solid-state matrix (sol-gel silica, organic [3] F. Fabbri, Y. Lassailly, K. Lahlil, J. P. Boilot, and J. Peretti, App. Phys. Lett. 96, 081908 (2010)

polymers...). These deformations are governed by the light
properties and may manifest at different scales, ranging from
the nanometer to the centimeter depending on the illumination
conditions. Coupling these compounds with other functional
materials may then be envisaged as a route for developing
structures and devices that can be actuated, tuned or
reconfigured by means of optical stimuli.
[4] F. Fabbri, D. Garrot, Y. Lassailly, K. Lahlil, et Al., J. Phys. Chem. B 115, 1363 (2011)
[5] F. Fabbri, Y. Lassailly, S. Monaco, et Al., Phys. Rev. B 86, 115440 (2012)
[6] Y. Zhao, S. Bai, D. Dumont, T. Galstian, Adv. Mat. 14, 512 (2002)
[7] P. Karageorgiev,D. Neher, B. Schulz,B. Stiller, U. Pietsh et al., Nat. Mater. 4, 699 (2005)
[8] A. Richter, M. Nowicki and B. Wolf, Mol.and Liq. Cryst. 483, 49 (2008)
[9] M. L. Trunov, J. Phys. D 41, 074011, (2008).
[10] J. Vapaavuori et Al., J. Mat. Chem. C 1, 2806 (2013)

[11] L. Sorelli, F. Fabbri, et Al., J. Mat.. Chem. C 3, 11055 (2015)

II. PHOTOMECHANICAL EFFECTS IN AZOMATERIALS
[12] A. Emoto, E. Uchida and T. Fukuda, Polymers 4, 150 (2012)
Several remarkable photomechanical phenomena have been [13] Z. Mahimwalla et al., Polym. Bull. 69, 967 (2012)
identified and characterized in azopolymer thin films, in
[14] A. Priimagi and A. Shevchenko, J. Pol. Sci. B 52, 163 (2014)
particular by using tailored local probe techniques. For
example, matter transport phenomena may take place under the [15] Z. Sekkat and S. Kawata Laser Phot. Rev. 8, 1 (2014)

projection of a polarized optical pattern, governed by the [16] Xianjun Ye, Mark G. Kuzyk, Opt. Comm. 312, 210 (2014)
spatial distribution of the light intensity and polarization. This [17] S. Bian, D. Robinson, and M. G. Kuzyk, J.Opt. Soc. Am. B 23, 697 (2006)
mechanism allows reversible light-structuring of azomaterials, [18] Y. Takashima, S. Hatanaka, et Al., Nat. Com. 3, 1270 (2012)
with deformations in the order of the film thickness, without [19] S. I. Na, et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 173509 (2007)
significant temperature change and is strongly dependent on
[20] C. Fedele, P.A. Netti, S. Cavalli, Biomater Sci. 6, 990 (2018)
the nature of the azopolymer matrix [1-6]. Another intriguing
mechanism is the photoinduced athermal modification of the
azo-polymers’ viscoelastic properties, in particular to lower the

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