Light-Induced Deformation of Azobenzene-Containing Colloidal Spheres: Calculation and Measurement of Opto-Mechanical Stresses

We report on light-induced deformation of colloidal spheres consisting of azobenzene-containing polymers. The colloids of the size between 60 nm and 2 μm in diameter were drop casted on a glass surface and irradiated with linearly polarized light. It was found that colloidal particles can be deformed up to ca. 6 times of their initial diameter. The maximum degree of deformation depends on the irradiation wavelength and intensity, as well as on colloidal particles size. On the basis of recently proposed theory by Toshchevikov et al. [ J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2017 , 8 , 1094 ], we calculated the opto-mechanical stresses (ca. 100 MPa) needed for such giant deformations and compared them with the experimental results.