Photomechanical Behavior of Photochromic Diarylethene Crystals

Photochromic compounds undergo photoreversible transformation reactions between two isomers having different absorption spectra. Diarylethene derivatives exhibit photochromism even in the crystalline phase. Photochromic crystals may be potentially useful for optoelectronic devices, such as optical memories, photoswitchable color filters, photoswitchable polarizers, and photomechanical actuators. This chapter focuses on recently identified photomechanical behaviors, such as crystal deformation, bending, twisting, and breaking, of photochromic diarylethene crystals.