Photoinduced birefringence is investigated in a new amorphous copolymer containing azobenzene groups. The levels of birefringence signal are found to depend on the polarization angle between the pump beam and the probe beam, and on the ellipticity of the pump beam. Both the growth and decay processes of the birefringence signal can be described by known biexponential equations. The rate constants and the amplitudes associated with the growth process of the photoinduced birefringence are observed to display a linear dependence with the pump beam intensity. A new dynamic model of the photoinduced birefringence is presented taking into account the contributions of both the trans and cis isomers ofazobenzene groups and the local polymer segments. The numerical treatment of this model shows good agreement with the experimental data in the whole writing-erasing processes of the photoinduced birefringence conducted in our polymer samples.
