Photochromic Reactions of Diarylethene Derivatives in Polymer Matrices

One of the candidates for photon-mode optical recording is photochromic materials. Although much efforts have been so far made in this area, the photochromic materials still await practical application. The limitation is due to lack of materials for the memory media. Recently a new type of photochromic compounds, diarylethene derivatives, was disclosed to have excellent properties for memory media. 1-3) In this report we examined the photochromic behavior of diarylethene derivatives in polymer matrices.