Electrical and Optical Properties of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals and Influence of Applied Pressure

Abstract

Much larger dielectric constants and spontaneous polarizations are evaluated in the smectic-C phase of p-alkoxybenzylidene-p'-amino-2-chloropropyl-cinnamate (HOBACPC, OOBACPC and DOBACPC) which have dipole moments at the chiral part compared with those of p-alkoxybenzylidene-p'-amino-2-methylbutyl-cinnamate. In the mixture of D-DOBAMBC and L-DOBACPC with inverse chirality, the pitch of the helical structure is longer compared with those of original compounds. On the other hand, the dielectric constant and the spontaneous polarization of the compounds are nearly linearly dependent on the concentration of L-DOBACPC. The phase transition temperature from smectic-A to chiral smectic-C phases in DOBAMBC decreases remarkably with the mixing of organic molecules (PAA, eicosane, etc.) but increases with applied pressure. The threshold field of electro-optical effects (transmission increase, colour switching, memory effects) in DOBACPC and HOBACPC etc. is lower than that in DOBAMBC etc. in accordance with the increase of the spontaneous polarization in the former.