J. Newton et al., NEW LMM ORGANOSILOXANES WITH PHOTOISOMERISING AZO GROUPS, Molecular crystals and liquid crystals science and technology. Section A, Molecular crystals and liquid crystals, 260, 1995, pp. 107-125
A new LMM photo-reactive chiral ate-containing organosiloxane (C(10)Az
oB) and its racemic analogue (C(10)Azo(+/-)B) have been synthesised a
nd their mesomorphic properties investigated. The materials are denote
d C(10)AzoB and C(10)Azo(+/-)B where C-n refers to the number of meth
ylene units in the alkyl spacer, Azo and Azo(+/-) denote the chiral a
nd racemic photoisomerising azobenzene-based mesogenic moiety and B re
fers to the pentamethyldisiloxane tail. Both LMM siloxane derivatives
exhibit a single enantiotropic smectic A phase. Results on the consequ
ences of incorporating these new materials into a related fast switchi
ng, LMM ferroelectric organosiloxane host will be given. In addition r
esults will be presented on the photoisomerisation of the azo material
s and their use in optically manipulating the magnitude of spontaneous
polarisation in a ferroelectric liquid crystal.