Photomobile materials change their shape when irradiated with light, thus converting the energy of the incident light directly into mechanical work. The chief means of achieving the photodeformation effect has consisted of incorporating photochromic compounds, such as azobenzene, in polymers or gels. Shining light on photochromic dyes induces changes in conformation, which causes the changes in their shapes. However, the physical weakness of the materials and the small amount of deformation that occurs limit the potential applicability of polymer- or gel-based photomobile materials.

Tomiki Ikeda and his colleagues describe incorporating azobenzene functional units in ferroelectric liquid-crystalline elastomer films by photopolymerizing oriented monomers under electric fields. Ferroelectric films offer the advantages of high order and low glass-transition temperature. They enabled a fast—a few hundred milliseconds—deformation response and yielded a large mechanical force comparable to the contraction of human muscles. Such rapid and strong photomechanical responses could permit applications in photo-driven micromachines and artificial muscles.