Time-resolved studies of photoinduced birefringence in azobenzene dye-doped polymer films.
We measured transient photoinduced birefringence (delta n) in various azobenzene dye films by pumping with a nanosecond pulse at 532 nm and probing at 633 nm. The switch-on times for the photoinduced birefringence range from nanoseconds to milliseconds and are systematically related with the lowest optical transition energies for those films. Moreover, our results suggest that the transient photoinduced birefringence measurement is a convenient way to determine the relative energies of pi-pi(*) and n-pi(*) states in azo-based materials.
Sheng
ChuanXiang
C
College of Optical Sciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721, USA. csheng@optics.arizona.edu
Norwood
Robert A
RA
Wang
Jiafu
J
Thomas
Jayan
J
Wu
Yinglan
Y
Zheng
Zhiping
Z
Tabirian
N
N
Steeves
Diane M
DM
Kimball
Brian R
BR
Peyghambarian
N
N