Smart polymers for optical data storage

Abstract

Smart polymers based on photoresponsive azobenzene moieties have been extensively explored as potential materials for high capacity optical storage. This chapter reviews different strategies to incorporate azobenzenes into polymeric structures as well as their photoresponse properties. The potential of this type of materials as volume holographic media is summarized with special emphasis on block copolymers and blends. Although side-chain azopolymers has been the most investigated, new macromolecular architectures have been recently proposed and will be briefly presented.