A bow-phase mesogen showing strong, robust analog electro-optics

David M. Walba; Eva Körblova; Renfan Shao; Noel A. Clark

doi:10.1039/B102732H

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David M. Walba,*^a Eva Körblova,^a Renfan Shao^b and Noel A. Clark^b

Author affiliations

* Corresponding authors

^a Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, 215 UCB, the Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA
E-mail: walba@colorado.edu

^b Department of Physics, 390 UCB, the Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Materials Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder, USA

Abstract

The design and synthesis of the first of a new class of bow-phase (also known as banana-phase) mesogens possessing resorcylidene aniline groups in the core is described. The new achiral material, NORABOW, shows two chiral electro-optically active smectic phases, both existing over a wide temperature range. The high temperature smectic, which exists as the thermodynamically stable phase between 120 °C and 150 °C, exhibits electro-optic behavior not previously reported for a bow-phase. In particular, high susceptibility analog electro-optics (“V-shaped switching”) are observed in a texture which is stable to large applied electric fields. The electro-optic behavior of NORABOW is of potential utility in photonic switching applications.

This article is part of the themed collection: Molecular topology in liquid crystals: Materials Discussion 4

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Article information

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1039/B102732H
Article type: Paper
Submitted: 26 Mar 2001
Accepted: 06 Jun 2001
First published: 26 Sep 2001

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J. Mater. Chem., 2001,11, 2743-2747

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