Patent ID: 7501210

Claim:
A photo-responsive high-molecular compound comprising an aromatic ring in a main chain, a photo-responsive group that is geometrically isomerized by light radiation, and a liquid crystal linear mesogen group, wherein the photo-responsive group and the liquid crystal linear mesogen group are respectively bonded with the aromatic ring as side chains, the liquid crystal linear mesogen group contains a biphenyl skeleton, and the compound comprises a repeat unit represented by the following general formula (10): wherein R 1 and R 2 each independently represent a hydrocarbon chain including a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic group, a substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic group, or both of a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic group and a substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic group, wherein R 1 represents a structural unit capable of forming a liquid-crystalline or crystalline polymer and R 2 represents a structural unit capable of forming an amorphous polymer; Y and Y′ respectively represent a hydrogen atom or a lower alkyl group; Z and Z′ each independently represent a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, a methoxy group, a cyano group or a nitro group; R represents a hydrocarbon chain including a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic group, a substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic group or both of a substituted or unsubstituted aromatic group and a substituted or unsubstituted aliphatic group; m and m′ each independently represent an integer from 1 to 3; n and n′ each independently represent an integer from 2 to 18; p represents an integer from 5 to 2000; and x, y, r and s each independently represent the abundance ratio of the repeat unit wherein x, y, r and s satisfy the following relations: 0<x<1, 0<y<1, x+y=1, 0<r<1, 0<s<1 and r+s=1, wherein r is in a range from about 0.2 to about 0.95 and s is in a range from about 0.05 to about 0.8, and said photo-responsive high-molecular compound is present in a photosensitive layer having a thickness of 50 μm or more.