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In
collaboration with St-Jean Photochemicals and supported by a Strategic
Project Grant of NSERC, we study the use of a low-concentration azobenzene
polymer network to optically align ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) with no
need for surface orientation layers. The idea is to use the photoorientation of
azobenzene moieties on the polymer achieved under linearly polarized UV or
visible light irradiation to induce the bulk alignment of FLC molecules that is
required for the chiral smectic-C phase switching exploited in FLC applications.
Representative publications:
“Optically Aligned Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals” Advanced
Materials, 2001, 13, 1891-1894.
“Photoinduced Alignment of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals Using Azobenzene Polymer Networks of Chiral Polyacrylates and Polymethacrylates”, Macromolecules, 2003, 36, 9024-9032.
“Photoinduced Alignment of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals Using Azobenzene Polymer Networks of Polyethers and Polyepoxides”, Macromolecules, 2003, 36, 9033-9041.
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