Current commercial optical storage technologies are all based on the heat effect of the recording laser, i.e., heatmode optical storage. In the present work, photon-mode optical storage using photochromic diarylethene materials was investigated. Two diarylethene derivatives were dispersed into PMMA solution, and spin-coated on a glass substrate with Al reflective layer as the recording layer. Two laser beams of 532 and 650 nm were used in recording and readout simultaneously, and signals with high S=N ratio were detected. Multi-wavelength optical storage was realized with the diarylethene PMMA film.

The photochromic diarylethene, 1, 2-bis (2-methyl-5-(2,2 -dicyanovinyl)-thien-3-yl) perfluorocyclopentene (1a), was synthesized by a novel method. Two kinds of single crystals of the compound were obtained depending on the different recrystallization conditions and their structures were determined by X-ray crystallographic analysis. Allomorphism of the photochromic diarylethene was discovered. The compound underwent a photochromic reaction both in solution and in the single crystalline phase of the anti-parallel conformer.

Nanoparticles of a 1, 2-bis-(3-thienyl) perfluorocyclopentene derivative were first prepared by a reprecipitation method. The photochromism and kinetic behavior of the aggregates were investigated. As nanoparticles formed, the absorption maximum peaks of the closed-ring form were blue-shifted. The blue shift was explained by H-aggregates formation, which was consistent with the decreased fluorescence efficiency of the open-ring form. Spectrokinetic study showed that photochromic transformations were strongly affected by molecular aggregation. The decrease of photocyclization activity was mainly attributed to the intra- and intermolecular effects exerted by aggregation.

An efficient synthetic method was proposed to synthesize some 2, 3-position hybrid diarylethene derivatives. In these compounds, one of thiophene rings was attached to the ethylene moiety at 2-position, the other at 3-position. These asymmetric diarylethenes are sensitive at wavelengths in the region of 400 and 500 nm. They can undergo thermally irreversible and fatigue-resistant photochromic reactions in solution, some of them even in the solid state. Substituent effects on their photochromism were examined.