The authors demonstrate that photoinduced birefringence in azo-dye-doped polymers is strongly enhanced by hydrogen bonding between the guest molecules and the polymer host. The primary mechanism behind the enhancement is the possibility to use high dye doping levels compared to conventional guest-host systems because dye aggregation is restrained by hydrogen bonding. Moreover, hydrogen bonding reduces the mobility of the guest molecules in the polymer host leading to a larger fraction of the induced birefringence to be preserved after the excitation light has been turned off. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.