A novel polyelectrolyte PNANT functionalized with electron donor-aceeptor type azobenzene chromophores has been synthesized through post-polymerization azo coupling reaction and characterized by 1H-NMR．FTIR and UV-Vis spectroscopy．The degree of funetionalization (DF) of PNANT was 20％ measured by elemental analysis The degree of polymerization and its distribution were determined by GPC to be Xn=251 with a polydispersion index 1.53．A glass transition temperature of 119℃ was observed from DSC thermogram H-aggregation of azo chromophores of PNANT in spin-coated film and self-assembled film were detected from UV-Vis spectra

and the degree of H-aggregation of PNANT in the self-assembled film was found to be higher than that in the spin-coated film．Dichmism was optically induced in the spin-coated film and self-assembled film upon the irradiation of a polarized Ar+ laser beam at 488 nm．The orientational order parameter obtained was 0.15 for spin- coated film and 0.07 for the self-assembled film．The resulting dichroism detected by UV-Vis spectra exhibited long-terra stability．