Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Novel Techniques for Observing Structural Dynamics of Photoresponsive Liquid Crystals
Published on: May 29, 2018
Photoinduced circular anisotropy in a photochromic W-shaped-molecule-doped polymeric liquid crystal film
Suk-Won Choi1, N Y Ha, Kazuaki Shiromo
1Department of Organic & Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan.
Abstract:
Photoinduced circular anisotropy has been demonstrated in thin films of a main-chain polymeric liquid crystal (PLC) system doped with photochromic W-shaped molecules containing two azobenzene groups by irradiating with circularly polarized light (CPL). Reversible photoinduced circular dichroism (CD) was observed with sign relevant to the handedness of the CPL. The experimentally observed CD spectra were analyzed using the DeVoe polarizability model associated with the coupled oscillator method. We also propose a mechanism for the photoinduced circular anisotropy in our system; nucleating the W-shaped molecules with preferential twisted conformation by CPL irradiation, and triggering the local formation of a chiral structure in the W-shaped-molecule-doped main-chain PLC medium.
Related Concept Videos
Photochemical Electrocyclic Reactions: Stereochemistry
Selection Rules: Photochemical Activation
Thermal and Photochemical Electrocyclic Reactions: Overview
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity

