Polymers are provided having the following formula I, II or III: Polymers of the present invention can be used to provide an anti-reflective coating (ARC) material useful for submicrolithography processes using 248 nm KrF, 193 nm ArF and 157 nm F2 lasers. The polymers contain chromophore substituents which exhibit sufficient absorbance at wavelengths useful for such submicrolithography process. The ARC prevents back reflection from the surface of or lower layers in the semiconductor devices and solves the problem of the CD being altered by the diffracted and reflected light from such lower layers. The ARC also eliminates the standing waves and reflective notching due to the optical properties of lower layers on the wafer, and due to the changes in the thickness of the photosensitive film applied thereon. This results in the formation of stable ultrafine patterns suitable for 64M, 256M, 1 G, 4 G and 16 G DRAM semiconductor devices and a great improvement in the production yield.