Photoactive Film, Its Preparation And Use, And Preparation Of Surface Relief And Optically Anisotropic Structures By Irradiating Said Film

摘要

The present invention relates to a homogeneous, photoactive film consisting of or comprising a polyelectrolyte carrying residues which may undergo a photoreaction, the polyelectrolyte mainly comprising at least one structure according to any of formulae (I) to (IV), namely [Pol(R*—P—R′)]_o^on+n/xAx− (I), n/xA^x+[Pol(R*—P—R′)]_o^on− (II), [Pol(R¹*-Q-R^1′)]_o^on+n/xΛx− (III), n/xΛ^x+[Pol(R¹*-Q-R^1′)]_o^on− (IV), wherein Pol means a repeating unit of a linear or branched polymer chain, o indicates the number of the repeating unit of the polymer chain, and (R*—P—R′) and (R¹*-Q-R^1′) are n-fold positively or negatively charged side chains of the repeating unit Pol, wherein P is a group which is capable of photo-induced E/Z isomerization, Q is a group capable of participating in a photocycloaddition, or capable of participating in a photoinduced rearrangement, or the so called Photo-Fries reaction, A is a cation or anion which is oppositely charged, n is preferably 1 or 2, x is 1 or 2, and o is at least 2, with the proviso that in one polyelectrolyte, groups [R—P—R′] and/or [R¹-Q-R^1′] all have the same sign. The invention is further directed to the preparation of the film, its use and a method for the preparation of a replica of a film of the invention having a surface relief structure.