DOPING EFFECT ON THE PHOTO-PYROELECTRIC PROPERTIES OF FERROELECTRIC LIQUID-CRYSTALS

We have studied the doping effect on the photo-pyroelectricity of ferr oelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) with nonlinear optical chromophores. For a FLC mixture of SCE 13 doped with 4-dimethylamino-4 nitro stilben es (DANS), it is found that the paraelectric-ferroelectric (PA-FE) pha se transition temperature, T-c, becomes lower with increasing the conc entration of DANS: Under. a de bias electric field, the enhancement of the pyroelectricity in the PA phase (above T-c) of the doped SCE 13 i s much larger than that in the FE one. The doped FLCs are expected to be useful for thermal detection and imaging applications.