Optoelectronic Property and Application for Optical Recording of a New Diarylethene Bearing a Six-Membered Aryl Unit

A novel photochromic diarylethene, 1-(2-ethyl-3- benzothienyl)-2-(2-trifluoromethylphenyl)perfluorocyclopentene (1a), was synthesized and its photochromic and fluorescent properties were investigated. The compound underwent reversible cyclization and cycloreversion reactions upon alternating irradiation with UV and visible light both in solution and in PMMA film. And the absorption maximum of compound 1a was observed at 226 nm and 524 nm, respectively. In hexane solution, the open-ring isomer of the diarylethene 1 exhibited relatively strong fluorescence at 311 nm when excited at 275 nm. This new photochromic system also exhibited remarkable fluorescence switching in the solid state. Its fluorescence intensity decreased along with the photochromism from open-ring isomers to closed-ring isomers upon irradiation with 313 nm UV light. Using diarylethene 1b/PMMA film as recording medium, the evaluation of potential of photochromic diarylethene as a polarization medium by recording and reading in a real-time operation was investigated. The results demonstrated that the diarylethene compound had attractive properties for high capacity optical storage.