Image storage in coumarin-based copolymer thin films by photoinduced dimerization

Opt Lett. 2013 Nov 15;38(22):4636-9. doi: 10.1364/OL.38.004636.

Abstract

We report a technique to encode grayscale digital images in thin films composed of copolymers containing coumarins. A nonlinear microscopy setup was implemented and two nonlinear optical processes were used to store and read information. A third-order process (two-photon absorption) was used to photoinduce a controlled dimer-to-monomer ratio within a defined tiny volume in the material, which corresponds to each recorded bit of data. Moreover, a second-order process (second-harmonic generation) was used to read the stored information, which has been found to be highly dependent upon the monomer-to-dimer ratio.