title: Photodynamics of stress in clamped nematic elastomers.
abstract: We describe the complex time dependence of the buildup of force exerted by a clamped photoelastomer under illumination. Nonlinear (non-Beer) absorption leads to a bleaching wave of a significant cis isomer dye concentration deeply penetrating the solid with a highly characteristic dynamics. We fit our experimental response at one temperature to obtain material parameters. Force-time data can be matched at all other temperatures with no fitting required; our model provides a universal description of this unusual dynamics. The description is unambiguous since these are clamped systems where gross polymer motion is suppressed as a possible source of anomalous dynamics. Future experiments are suggested.
authors.affiliation: Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB3 0HE, United Kingdom. mk684@cam.ac.uk
authors.forename: Miloš
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knežević
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Warner
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Čopič
authors.forename: Antoni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sánchez-Ferrer