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Bistable ferroelectric liquid crystal photoswitch triggered by a dithienylethene dopant
Kenneth E Maly1, Michael D Wand, Robert P Lemieux
1Department of Chemistry, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada K7L 3N6.
Journal of the American Chemical Society
|July 4, 2002
Abstract:
The spontaneous polarization (PS) of a ferroelectric liquid crystal is modulated reversibly by photocyclization of the dopant 1,2-bis[5'-(4' '-heptyloxyphenyl)-2'-methylthien-3'-yl]perfluorocyclopentene. The magnitude of PS photomodulation increases with dopant concentration up to 3 mol %, and the resulting photoswitch is fatigue resistant and bistable. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first example of a bistable ferroelectric liquid crystal photoswitch to be reported in the literature.