New Azo Polymers and Their Applications to High Density Optical Memory Devices

Novel liquid crystalline malonic ester monomers were synthesized from malonyl dichloride and mesogenic alcohols as a photoresponsive group. The monomers were polymerized with aliphatic or aromatic dibromides in the presence of sodium hydride to give 8 kinds of novel poly(malonic esters) with two symmetrical azobenzene groups. We found that the resulting polymer films could be used as rewritable optical data storage (or holographic image) media through a photoisomerization of azobenzene group by Ar laser irradiation. The sensitivity of data recording was dependent not only on the thickness of the polymeric thin film but also on the intensity of laser beam.