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Updated: Aug 11, 2026

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Photoinduced effects in the vicinity of the smectic-A-smectic-C*A transition: polarization, tilt angle, and response
Geetha G Nair1, Gurumurthy Hegde, S Krishna Prasad
1Centre for Liquid Crystal Research, Jalahalli, Bangalore 560 013, India.
Abstract:
We report detailed measurements of the photoinduced effects on the electric polarization, tilt angle, response time, and rotational viscosity in the vicinity of the smectic-A-antiferroelectric-smectic-C (Sm-C*(A)) transition of a guest-host system consisting of photoactive azobenzene-based guest molecules and nonphotoactive host molecules. In the Sm-C*(A) phase all the parameters, except the tilt angle, exhibit both the primary and secondary photoferroelectric effects. The tilt angle dependence of the polarization in the absence of light and in light-on conditions have been analyzed in terms of the predictions of the generalized mean-field and microscopic models.
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