In this study, we have investigated the effect of oligomerization and rotaxane formation on the optical and surface-morphological properties of pyrene-triazole azomethine based compounds. The combined effects of oligomerization and rotaxane formation improve the solubility, film forming ability, photophysical (increased fluorescence intensity and lifetime), and morphological properties of the azomethine oligomers. Upon rotaxane formation, the root-mean-square roughness of the films decreased from 3.5 to 1.0 nm (determined by AFM). On the contrary, no remarkable difference was found on the electrical conductivity of the iodine-doped rotaxane oligomer as compared to its un-doped form. (C) 2012 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.