Dynamics of photoinduced dichroism and birefringence in optically thick azopolymers

Dynamics of photoinduced dichroism and birefringence have been studied experimentally and theoretically (with the help of the Dumont model) by using some comb-shaped azopolymers. It is shown that the dynamics of trans-isomer concentration and their angular distribution anisotropy can be restored from the experimentally found dichroism dynamics, with the concentration and anisotropy being averaged over the thickness for optically thick samples. At the initial stage of photoinduced anisotropy when the active role of the polymer matrix can be neglected, the experimental time dependence of dichroism is shown to comply well with the Dumont model even if the orientation memory is neglected, provided that only a part of trans-isomers participates in trans-isomerisation.