Cognitive ability experiment with photosensitive organic molecular thin films.

We present an optical experiment which permits us to evaluate the information exchange necessary to self-induce cooperatively a well-organized pattern in a randomly activated molecular assembly. A low-power coherent beam carrying polarization and wavelength information is used to organize a surface relief grating on a photochromic polymer thin film which is photoactivated by a powerful incoherent beam. We demonstrate experimentally that less than 1% of the molecules possessing information cooperatively transmit it to the entire photoactivated polymer film.