Electroluminescent segmented liquid crystalline trimers

The synthesis and liquid crystal behaviour of light‐emitting trimeric liquid crystals consisting of three mesomorphic moieties connected by aliphatic spacers are reported. The combination of an aromatic light‐emitting central core and two cholestanyl (dihydrocholesteryl) groups induces a helical liquid crystalline phase with circularly polarised photoluminescence and electroluminescence. These segmented trimers are designed to possess a high glass transition temperature below which the structure of liquid crystalline phases can be fixed. The effects of odd and even spacers, spacer length and the presence of large lateral substituents on the liquid crystal behaviour and the glass transition temperature of these trimers were studied. Electroluminescence from a segmented liquid crystalline trimer is reported for the first time.     

The existence of a 2‐factor in K1, n‐free graphs with large connectivity and large edge‐connectivity

In this article, we study the existence of a 2‐factor in a K_{1, n}‐free graph. Sumner [J London Math Soc 13 (1976), 351–359] proved that for n?4, an (n?1)‐connected K_{1, n}‐free graph of even order has a 1‐factor. On the other hand, for every pair of integers m and n with m?n?4, there exist infinitely many (n?2)‐connected K_{1, n}‐free graphs of even order and minimum degree at least m which have no 1‐factor. This implies that the connectivity condition of Sumner's result is sharp, and we cannot guarantee the existence of a 1‐factor by imposing a large minimum degree. On the other hand, Ota and Tokuda [J Graph Theory 22 (1996), 59–64] proved that for n?3, every K_{1, n}‐free graph of minimum degree at least 2n?2 has a 2‐factor, regardless of its connectivity. They also gave examples showing that their minimum degree condition is sharp. But all of them have bridges. These suggest that the effects of connectivity, edge‐connectivity and minimum degree to the existence of a 2‐factor in a K_{1, n}‐free graph are more complicated than those to the existence of a 1‐factor. In this article, we clarify these effects by giving sharp minimum degree conditions for a K_{1, n}‐free graph with a given connectivity or edge‐connectivity to have a 2‐factor. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 68:77‐89, 2011     

Graph structural properties of non-Yutsis graphs allowing fast recognition

Yutsis graphs are connected simple graphs which can be partitioned into two vertex-induced trees. Cubic Yutsis graphs were introduced by Jaeger as cubic dual Hamiltonian graphs, and these are our main focus.Cubic Yutsis graphs also appear in the context of the quantum theory of angular momenta, where they are used to generate summation formulae for general recoupling coefficients. Large Yutsis graphs are of interest for benchmarking algorithms which generate these formulae.In an earlier paper we showed that the decision problem of whether a given cubic graph is Yutsis is NP-complete. We also described a heuristic that was tested on graphs with up to 300,000 vertices and found Yutsis decompositions for all large Yutsis graphs very quickly.In contrast, no fast technique was known by which a significant fraction of bridgeless non-Yutsis cubic graphs could be shown to be non-Yutsis. One of the contributions of this article is to describe some structural impediments to Yutsisness. We also provide experimental evidence that almost all non-Yutsis cubic graphs can be rapidly shown to be non-Yutsis by applying a heuristic based on some of these criteria. Combined with the algorithm described in the earlier paper this gives an algorithm that, according to experimental evidence, runs efficiently on practically every large random cubic graph and can decide on whether the graph is Yutsis or not.The second contribution of this article is a set of construction techniques for non-Yutsis graphs implying, for example, the existence of 3-connected non-Yutsis cubic graphs of arbitrary girth and with few non-trivial 3-cuts.     

2‐factors with prescribed and proscribed edges

Let G be a finite k‐edge‐connected simple graph. We consider when a set of independent edges can be extended to a 2‐factor such that this 2‐factor avoids a fixed set of independent edges. A complete characterization is provided in those cases, where this is feasible. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Graph Theory 49: 48–58, 2005     

Organic electroluminescence using polymer networks from smectic liquid crystals

We report the synthesis of a red light-emitting and photopolymerizable smectic liquid crystal (reactive mesogen). We investigate the suitability of polymer networks formed from smectic reactive mesogens for use in organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs). The use of mixtures of smectic reactive mesogens is shown to lower the processing temperature for the fabrication of OLEDs to room temperature. We also report efficient energy transfer from a nematic polymer network host to a smectic light-emitting dopant and polarized emission from a polymer network formed from an aligned smectic reactive mesogen.     

Highly birefringent nematic and chiral nematic liquid crystals

We report a simple interference method to determine the dispersion of the extraordinary refractive index and birefringence of highly conjugated and coloured nematic liquid crystals used as light-emitting materials in organic electroluminescent devices. The measurements are made in the nematic glass phase at room temperature. The birefringence is highly dispersive and values up to 1.1 are obtained. Chiral groups are incorporated into the end chains giving a chiral nematic liquid crystal with a very wide stopband in the visible region. The Berreman matrix method is used to simulate transmission through the chiral nematic liquid crystal cell using the refractive index parameters obtained experimentally. Excellent agreement between theory and experiment is found.     

N-extendability of symmetric graphs

It is proved that a cyclically (k ? 1)(2n ? 1)-edge-connected edge transitive k-regular graph with even order is n-extendable, where k ≥ 3 and k ? 1 ≥ n ≥ ?(k + 1)/2?. The bound of cyclic edge connectivity is sharp when k = 3. © 1993 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.