Photoinduced dynamics in a photosensitive side chain polymeric liquid crystal by quasielastic and inelastic neutron...

We report the first study by inelastic (INS) and quasielastic neutron scattering of photoinduced changes in the reorientational and vibrational dynamics of a liquid crystalline side chain polymer. We use the cis-trans photoisomerization transition to take the system out of equilibrium and determine the quasielastic (QE) and inelastic scattering laws on two distinct time windows, corresponding to the time-of-flight (IN6) and backscattering (IN16) spectrometers at Institut Laue Langevin (ILL) (Grenoble). Our investigation was focused on the dynamics of the coupling between the mesogenic side chains and the polymeric main chain, which is connected to the extensive optical writing and memory effects that have been demonstrated in this complex material. We report data on the QE broadening and Debye-Waller factors, as a function of temperature across the glass transition (T(g)=293 K). We also studied the dynamical coupling of side and main chains. We report photoinduced changes on the static structure factor, on the purely elastic scattering fraction, on the low frequency vibrational dynamics (around the boson peak region). In particular, we find that on the space-time scales accessible to the INS techniques there is a time structure in the coupling, and that over longer times and distances the two dynamics are decoupled.