The permanent all-optical poling of an azo-aromatic acrylic copolymer is experimentally demonstrated by seeding preparation in a backward phase-conjugation geometry. The microscopic mechanism involves an orientational hole burning followed by orientational redistribution caused by trans-to-cis isomerization of the azo-dye chromophores. The characteristic kinetics of growth and decay of the noncentrosymmetry grating is monitored by second-harmonic generation.
Organic field-effect transistors were fabricated with pentacene as the active material and a ferroelectric copolymer poly(vinylidene fluoride–trifluoroethylene) as the gate insulator. As-prepared devices showed normal -type transistor operation. The ON- and OFF-states could be written to the device by applying appropriate voltages to the gate with respect to short-circuited source and drain electrodes. The devices exhibited excellent memory retention properties.