Liquid crystal is a representative soft matter, which has physical properties between those of conventional liquid and those of crystal in a temperature range above a melting point. A liquid-crystal display (LCD) employs the response of the liquid-crystal alignment to the electric field and is a key device of an information display. For common LCDs, the precise control of the initial alignment of LC molecules is needed so that a good dark state, thus a high contrast ratio, can be obtained. If the birefringence can be induced in the liquid phase by the application of electric field, it is of great use as a material for the LCD application. In this study, we will report a unique property of dichiral azobenzene liquid crystals: an electric induction of birefringence in a liquid phase of an antiferroelectric dichiral azobenzene liquid crystal. The optically isotropic texture changes into the homogenous birefringent texture by the application of the in-plane electric field above the clearing temperature of the liquid crystal. We find that one of the possible reasons of the induction of the birefringence in the isotropic phase is the electrically-induced increase of the phase transition temperature between the antiferroelectric liquid-crystalline and “liquid” phases, i.e., increase in the clearing temperature. The resulting birefringence can be disappeared by the irradiation of UV light, due to the photoinduced isomerization of the azobenzene compound, thus dual control of the birefringent structure, by the irradiation of light and/or by the application of the electric field, is achieved.
In this study, we investigated self-organized structures and photoinduced motions of microparticles on azobenzenedoped liquid crystal (LC) films with homogeneous or homeotropic alignment structures. In the case of homogeneous alignment, the microparticles formed linear chains oriented along the direction of the bulk LC alignment at air–LC interface in the initial state. Upon irradiation with ultra-violet (UV) light, the linear chains gathered into the irradiated area and formed closely-packed aggregates. The assembled chains diffused outside the irradiated area to reform the chains upon irradiation with visible light. In contrast, on the homeotropically aligned LC films, pseudo-hexagonal lattice structures of microparticles with long interparticle distances have been organized in the initial state. The particles exhibited photoinduced motions in directions opposite to those observed on the homogeneously aligned LC films. Upon irradiation with UV light, lattice structures were expanded by a particle motion away from the photoirradiated area. Irradiation with visible light then induced contraction of lattice structures based on a particle motion toward the irradiated area. The photoinduced particle motions depending on LC alignments would be explained by macroscopic convective flow or deformation of LC surface induced by cis–trans photoisomerization of azobenzene dopant.
Super-structures produced in the smectic molecular organization are reviewed, and the origin for the structures discussed,
in which it is emphasized that the frustration plays an important role in the emergence of the super-structures. Properties
and structures of mysterious smectic phases possessing chirality-induced super-structures are introduced, including
smectic blue and smectic Q (SmQ) phases that possess three dimensional (3D) structures. The molecular design on
stabilizing the 3D structure is proposed. The molecular orientations in the 3D structures are not so sensitive to the
external electric field due to an intricate smectic ordering, thus it has been difficult to imagine practical applications of
these structures. The SmQ compound possessing an azobenzene core in the molecular structure is designed and the
liquid-crystalline properties and photoresponse investigated. By means of the photoisomerization of the azobenzene
moiety, we demonstrate that the 3D structure of the SmQ phase can be controlled by light as an external stimulus,
suggesting a possibility for new applications utilizing the liquid-crystalline 3D structure.
We investigated photochemical manipulation of physical properties and colloidal structures in liquid-crystal (LC) colloids containing azobenzene compounds. In a LC suspension where polymeric particles were dispersed in a host LC, we achieved photochemical control of light-scattering properties of the suspension. In a nematic phase, when the suspension was sandwiched with two glass plates, the film became opaque. This would be attributable to an appearance of both multidomain structures of LC alignment and mismatches of refractive indices between the materials. The opaque state turned into a transparent one when a nematic-to-isotropic phase transition was induced by the trans-to-cis photoisomerization of the azo-dye. This will result from a disappearance of both the multidomain structures and the refractive-index mismatches in the isotropic phase. The transparent film went back into the initial opaque film when the nematic phase was obtained by the cis-to-trans photoisomerization. In a LC emulsion in which glycerol or water droplets were dispersed in liquid crystals, we examined photochemical change of defect structures and inter-droplet distances by the photochemical manner. At the initial state, Saturn ring and hedgehog defects were formed around the droplets. For the glycerol droplets, we observed structural transformations between Saturn ring and boojums on irradiation with ultra-violet and visible light. For the water droplets, the inter-droplet distances varied by changing defect size on the irradiation. These phenomena would result from modulation of anchoring conditions of the droplets by the photoisomerization of the azo-dyes.
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