New azobenzene block copolymers for high density optical writing

The work is focused on investigations on azobenzene-based nematic homopolymer, random copolymer and block copolymer samples as candidate materials for high density, purely optical nanowriting. Block copolymers were also dispersed in polymer blends at different weight percent contents. The materials were studied by several techniques, including electron spin resonance spectroscopy and dynamic-mechanical and rheological analyses, in order to confirm suitability for optical nanowriting. Purely optical, reversible nanowriting was effected by scanning near-field optical microscopy (SNOM) at the ∼100 nm scale.