TY  - JOUR
A1  - Yadavalli, Nataraja Sekhar
A1  - Korolkov, Denis
A1  - Moulin, Jean-Francois
A1  - Krutyeva, Margarita
A1  - Santer, Svetlana
T1  - Probing opto-mechanical stresses within azobenzene-containing photosensitive polymer films by a thin metal film placed above
JF  - ACS applied materials & interfaces
N2  - Azo-modified photosensitive polymers offer the interesting possibility to reshape bulk polymers and thin films by UV-irradiation while being in the solid glassy state. The polymer undergoes considerable mass transport under irradiation with a light interference pattern resulting in the formation of surface relief grating (SRG). The forces inscribing this SRG pattern into a thin film are hard to assess experimentally directly. In the current study, we are proposing a method to probe opto-mechanical stresses within polymer films by characterizing the mechanical response of thin metal films (10 nm) deposited on the photosensitive polymer. During irradiation, the metal film not only deforms along with the SRG formation but ruptures in a regular and complex manner. The morphology of the cracks differs strongly depending on the electrical field distribution in the interference pattern, even when the magnitude and the kinetics of the strain are kept constant. This implies a complex local distribution of the opto-mechanical stress along the topography grating. In addition, the neutron reflectivity measurements of the metal/polymer interface indicate the penetration of a metal layer within the polymer, resulting in a formation of a bonding layer that confirms the transduction of light-induced stresses in the polymer layer to a metal film.
KW  - surface relief grating
KW  - opto-mechanical stresses
KW  - bonding layer at the metal/polymer interface
KW  - rupturing of metal film
KW  - metal/multilayered graphene/polymer interfaces
KW  - azobenzene
Y1  - 2014
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1021/am501870t
SN  - 1944-8244
VL  - 6
IS  - 14
SP  - 11333
EP  - 11340
PB  - American Chemical Society
CY  - Washington
ER  -