Q800 machine

The films were studied for liquid crystal alignment quality by observing light transmission through crossed polarizers using a Leica polarized optical microscope equipped with a Linkam hot stage. The alignment of both sides of the film was determined by polarized ATR-IR spectra. The films were marked appropriately, and in all the experiments described in the main text the film orientation was verified and recorded.
Polarized and normal absorption spectra were recorded on a Shimadzu UV-3102 Spectrometer Representative images of absorption spectra taken at various times in the film production are shown in Supplementary Fig. 11. The storage modulus and tan delta of the films were determined using a Q800 machine by TA Instruments. The surface temperatures of the F-azo films were recorded by a Thermacam T400 thermal camera (FLIR Systems) during illumination on the DMTA device.
Each frame of the recorded movies (full HD, NTSC, recorded on a Nikon D3200 SLR camera) was quantified with respect to the film tip position by image analysis. To this end, the movies recorded under different light conditions were imported into Matlab and each frame analysed.

The morphologies of the samples were investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, Nova NanoSEM, FEI, Hillsboro, OR, USA) analysis. Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR) spectra were obtained by using KBr pellets (FT-IR spectrometer, Vertex80v, Bruker, Billerica, MA, USA) in the range 400 to 4000 cm⁻¹. Raman spectroscopy was carried out using a micro-Raman spectrometer (inVia Raman spectrometer, Renishaw, Wotton-under-Edge, UK) with a laser having a 514.5 nm light source with an output of 0.15 mW. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) was performed on a Q50 machine (TGA, TA Instruments, New Castle, DE, USA) with an N₂ gas flow at a heating rate of 10 °C/min. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) was conducted by using PI and GPC films (30 mm length, 5 mm wide, and ca. 30 μm thickness) on a Q800 machine (DMA, TA Instruments, New Castle, DE, USA) at a heating rate of 3 °C/min with a load frequency of 1 Hz in air. Electrical conductivity was measured by SM-8311 machine (HIOKI, Nagano, Japan) under 500 V.