Probing the electric field alignment of a thermotropic liquid crystalline polymer by synchrotron radiation

The orientation of a cyclic side-chain thermotropic liquid crystalline material in an AC field was monitored in real-time using synchrotron radiation. Monitoring the realignment processes in the millisecond-to-minute time-scale was made possible by the high X-ray flux. Orientation parameters and response times were calculated as a function of temperature and frequency. Response times decreased exponentially with temperature due to a decrease in the viscosity. Very little dependence of the response time on frequency was observed, except at low temperatures, where a switch from homeotropic to planar alignment of the molecules was detected. This reorientation of the director was studied in real-time and the resulting complex diffraction patterns were due to equal but opposite director rotations from an alignment parallel to the applied electric field to an alignment perpendicular to the applied electric field. The orientation parameters were highest in the central portion of the mesophase temperature range. At temperatures near clearing, the net degree of orientation diminished. Cooling through the mesophase with an applied electric field resulted in much larger orientation parameters than could be obtained by aligning at a fixed temperature in the mesophase.