Optical reconfiguration of surface relief gratings on supramolecular polymer films using grating translation and superposition Available to Purchase

We demonstrate the optical erasure and amplification of surface relief gratings written on supramolecular azobenzene-polymer films. The reversible photomechanical response of azobenzene-polymer films enables surface reconfiguration through grating superposition, which is implemented through mechanical film translation and exposure in a laser interference pattern. Sinusoidal surface relief gratings could be photoerased and regenerated using laser exposures with interference patterns shifted by half a period. Gratings could also be amplified and their surface coverage extended through multiple translations and exposures at integer-period steps. We report the fabrication of a $2.0×2.0$ mm$2$ surface grating of amplitude 697 nm from an initial grating of 78 nm amplitude through raster scanning and reexposing using a step translation equal to 10 fringes.