Novel azobenzene chromophore-containing polymer has been synthesized. The synthesized azobenzene monomer and polymer have been characterized by using (1)H NMR, FT-IR and UV-Vis spectra. Photoinduced birefringence has been realized in the polymer system under low optical driving power (at milliwatt magnitude). The reversibility of the photoinduced birefringence is more than 90%. The polymer system shows almost fully reversible photoinduced birefringence which is ideal for all-optical switching and modulation of light in the fields of all-optical communication and signal processing. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.