Photoinduced transparency in polypyrrole films

For the first time we have discovered drastic photoinduced effects in the transparency for the pyrrole films. Photoinduced investigations of transparency were performed for the polypyrroles with different number of the pyrrole rings. We have established a considerable increase of the transparency from 70–75% up to 82–84% for the wavelengths of the probing lasers operating within the 530–1040 nm spectral range. The photoexcitation was performed by nanosecond pulsed polarized Nd-YAG laser generating at 1.34 μm. The phototransparent changes are completely reversible and disappear after switching off the laser treatment. The typical relaxation time for the photoinduced transparency is equal to about 10–20 μs and the changes of the transparency are strictly related with the values of state dipole moments of the polypyrroles. As a possible mechanism for explanation of the observed dependences one can consider existence of the charged trapping levels intra the forbidden energy gaps which effectively interact with the electric strength of the external polarized optical field and state dipole moments of the particular polymers.