Functional surfaces through the creation of adhesion and charged patterns on azopolymer surface relief gratings

Abstract

We show that an azopolymer can be used to create a supramolecular architecture in a parallel process with patterned surface properties. By illuminating with an interference pattern, we created adhesion and charge patterns that reflect the molecular ordering. We studied the recording process in two limit situations. When birefringence dominates over mass transport, an adhesion pattern was recorded even in absence of a surface relief grating (SRG). When mass transport dominates, we measured a higher frequency adhesion and relief patterns on top of the SRG. We measured an increased negative charge in the regions where molecules are expected to be parallel aligned in trans conformational state.