Synthesis, properties and application of a novel photochromic diarylethene

A new unsymmetrical photochromic diarylethene, 1-(2,5-dimethyl-3-thienyl)-2-(2-methyl-5-(2,4-difluorophenyl)) perfluorocyclopentene (1a), was synthesized and its optoelectronic properties, such as photochromism in solution as well as in poly-methylmethacrylate (PMMA) amorphous films and fluorescences were investigated. The photochromic reaction kinetics indicated that the cyclization processes of 1a belong to the zeroth order reaction and the cycloreversion process belong to the first order reaction. Using diarylethene 1c/PMMA film as recording medium and a linearly polarized 633 nm laser diode for recording and readout, polarization multiplexed image recording can be carried out in this film, which illustrated that the diarylethene can be potentially used as holographic optical recording medium.