Nanostructuration of azopolymer nanotubes and nanofoils

Advance in the manipulation of objects by optical fields become more and more important for the future of nanotechnology. In this direction, assembly of nanometer-scaled building blocks into new device configurations is an intensively investigated research field in nanotechnology. Beyond all the materials used for producing nano-objects Azo dyes are very promising. It has been emphasized in the past few years because of the ability of these dyes to record optical information and to self-organize. This ability comes from the trans-cis photoisomerization where molecules induce motions when they relax from cis to trans [1]. Recently, Surface Relief Gratings have been produced in a one-step irradiation process in standard laboratory conditions with a controlled laser beam polarization [2]. Practically, one single beam with controlled polarization can photo-induce a SRG whose wave-vector direction is parallel to the light polarization.