Induced optical chirality of poly(diacetylene) film by circularly polarized light and its control by changing substrate temperature

The strength of chirality of a blue-phase poly(diacetylene) (PDA) film polymerized from achiral monomers using circularly polarized light (CPL) was effectively controlled by changing substrate temperature (313 and 273 K). The obtained absorption spectra did not show a difference between PDA films polymerized using left- and right-CPL, whereas the chiral PDA films with opposite chirality were selectively produced by left- and right-CPL irradiations. The PDA film prepared at 313 K showed stronger chirality than that prepared at 273 K. Microscopy observation clearly indicates that the strength of chirality depends on the domain size.