Diffusion processes of single fluorescent molecules in a polymer-based thin material with three-dimensional network.

Single-molecule imaging revealed the hierarchical mobility change of guest dyes in a polymer-based thin film under network formation: at the early stage of the reaction, only the translational diffusion was inhibited while keeping the rotational diffusion active, the fraction of translationally immobilized dyes increased with increasing crosslinking, and at the last stage both motions stopped.