Instability-induced pattern formation of photoactivated functional polymers

When azobenzene-containing polymer films are exposed to UV or visible light complex Turing patterns form on the polymer's surface. But despite the large number of applications reported, a physical explanation for the pattern formation in this important class of materials and its dependence on both the lights intensity and polarization is still lacking. In this study, we present a general explanation for the pattern formation on these photoactivated azopolymer films. We believe that our findings are an innovative contribution to the field of pattern formation of functional polymers and photoactivated thin film engineering, which have the potential to boost the development of photoresponsive systems, such as molecular electronic devices.