Optical Field-Induced Mass Transport in Soft Materials

The dependence of the surface relief formation in amorphous chalcogenide (As2S3 and As-S-Se) and Disperse Red 1 dye grafted polyurethane polymer films on the polarization state of holographic recording light beams was studied. It is shown that the direction of lateral mass transport on the film surface is determined by the direction of light electric vector and photoinduced anisotropy in the film. We propose a photoinduced dielectropfhoretic model to explain the photoinduced mass transport in amorphous films. Model is based on the photoinduced softening of the matrix, formation of defects with enhanced or decreased polarizability, and their drift under the electrical field gradient of light.