Guest-Host Type Liquid Crystal Displays

Eight modes of the guest-host cells (GH-cells), in which types of dye, liquid crystal and their alignments are adequately combined, are surveyed, and the color contrast of each mode is calculated.

Three modes among them are of positive type display, that is, colored patterns on the colorless background contrary to the initially proposed fundamental GH-cell. Another three modes are the GH-cells without polarizer, by which bright display can be obtained.

Light stability of dyes are also discussed and lifetimes of various dyes are estimated by accelerated life test. As a result, it is found that diazo-and axomethine-dayes without thiazole groups as well as anthraqunone-dyes have satisfying lifetimes as long as they are used indoors.     

The Use of Azo Dyes in Guest-Host Displays

Azo dye molecules are cylindrically shaped, and therefore, due to their resemblance to liquid crystal molecules, would seem to be suitable for use in guest-host mixtures. The dichroic ratio of a dye in a given nematic host depends on the molecular length of the dye molecules, the order parameter of the liquid crystal host and its molecular dimensions. It is possible to obtain a guest-host mixture with an order parameter which is higher than that of the pure host. Lateral substitution of mono-azo dyes lowers the order parameter, whilst lateral substitution of the corresponding bis-and tris-azo molecules results in only a slight change in their order parameter.

The stability of these compounds to light is poor, and depends on the wavelength for maximum absorption, and on the host material. Whilst lateral substitution increases the fastness of azo compounds when used for textile dying, this is not the case when they are employed with liquid crystal mixtures. The kinetics of degradation are zero order in dye concentration.

It has been found that azo dyes are not in general suited to applications where prolonged exposure to sunlight may be encountered, e.g. watch applications.     

Surface Order Parameter and Polar Anchoring Energy in Nematic Liquid Crystals

The trends of temperature dependence of the surface order parameter and of the anchoring strength coefficient are theoretically evaluated in the Landau-de Gennes phenomenological theory for nematic liquid crystals. The cases of planar, homeotropic and tilted alignment at a planar limiting surface are considered. It is shown that the cases with surface order parameter greater than the bulk one or smaller than this can occur in function of the phenomenological coefficients in the surface free energy expression. The anchoring strength coefficient, W, diminishes when temperature approaches the nematic-isotropic point, after passing through a maximum in most of cases. The possibility of a non-zero anchoring strength at temperatures above the transition temperature is revealed. The obtained trends of W(T) describe well a large variety of experimental results from literature.     

Assessment of Nematic Guest-Host Systems for Application to Integrated Liquid Crystal Displays

An optimized configuration of the nematic guest-host effect is described in which a 90° twist cell is used. In order to assess the suitability of nematic guest-host systems for use in integrated displays in which a significant dc voltage may appear across the liquid crystal, several dye/host systems were tested with up to 1.5V dc superimposed on the normal 5V r.m.s. drive signal. Degradation was monitored by measurement of tilt, clearing point and absorbance. One system tested showed no significant degradation after 9 × 10³ hr. Excellent correlation was observed between stability of a dye/host system in a driven display and the reversibility of the reduction of the dye in acetonitrile solution at a platinum electrode.     

The Order Parameters of Some Nematic Liquid Crystals Measured by the Resonance Raman Effect and Its Relevance to the Nematic-Isotropic Phase Transition

The second and fourth order parameters of nematic MBBA and 5CB have been determined near the nematic-isotropic transition temperatures by means of resonance Raman measurements on β-carotene dissolved as an orientational probe. The limiting behaviour of the second order parameter of MBBA near the transition point has been investigated on the basis of its fluctuation, which is deduced from the 2nd and 4th order parameter values.     

Birefringence and Order Parameter of Some Alkyl and Alkoxycyanobiphenyl Liquid Crystals

The refractive indices and densities of six liquid crystals—two alkylcyanobiphenyls, three alkoxycyanobiphenyls and one mixture of two alkylcyanobiphenyls have been reported as a function of temperature. The effective polarizabilities α_eand α_o in the nematic phase calculated using the methods due to Neugebauer, Vuks and Saupe and Maier, are found to be appreciably different, though the order parameter S evaluated with those values of (α_e - α_o) are in good agreement. The preference of one method over the other two is discussed.     

Diamagnetic Anisotropy Measurements of Nematic Liquid Crystals

Electro-optic effect of liquid crystals in the presence of a magnetic field was investigated. Two independent techniques: magnetic field dependent threshold voltage and magnetic field-assisted relaxation time, were used to evaluate the diamagnetic anisotropy for three nematic liquid crystals: BDH-E7, RO-TN-103 and ZLI-1132. Correlation between the diamagnetic anisotropy and the molecular structures was obtained. This information is particularly important for synthesizing liquid crystal components with desired diamagnetic anisotropy.     

White and Taylor Type Guest Host Displays Without Scattering Effects Using the Tilted Boundary Conditions

White and Taylor type guest host displays using the tilted boundary condition have been reported. The parallel or the perpendicular boundary condition is usually used for these displays and both conditions cause scattering phemomena after the electric field removal. The present paper reports the relaxation processes of samples with the tilted boundary after the field removal. Using the tilted boundary, two types of nonscattering conditions depending on the thickness of the liquid crystal layer (d), the natural pitch (Po) and the boundary condition (φ) exist. Both types of conditions are discussed in detail.     

Magnetic Order in Organic Superconductors

We have undertaken an electron spin resonance study at both low and high magnetic field on the superconducting phase of the ambient pressure superconductor (BEDT-TTF>₂I₃, (ET)₂I₃, over the temperature range 1-300 K and hydrostatic pressure range from 0 to 2 kbar. At ambient pressure the ESR results are consistent with the picture of (ET)₂I₃ as a metal. Superconductivity is observed at 1.6 K via low field ESR. Application of modest pressures strongly suppresses the superconducting transition temperature. At pressures above about 0.3 kbar the superconductivity is suppressed in favor of an as-yet-unidentified magnetic state whose onset is at 7K. Through an analysis of the microwave ESR lineshape we find that the microwave conductivity over the temperature range 5-50 K is in agreement with dc measurements.     

On the temperature Dependence of the orientational Order Parameter in the Nematic Phase of Cyanophenyl Behzoates

The orientational order parameters fot two liquid crystal materials, 4-cyanophenyl 4-butylbenzoate and 4-cyanophenyl 4-pentylbenzoate, have been derived by measuring the change in the refractive index as function of temperature. The order parameters are compared with MaierSaupe theory, and the sharpness of the transitions has been shown using the Haller's plot.     

The Electro-Optical Properties of Doping Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon Liquids in Twisted Nematic Liquid Crystals

In this paper, doping liquid materials to enhance the electro-optical (EO) properties of twisted nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) was presented. Two polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) liquids, toluene and 1-methylnaphthalene, were chosen as dopants in order to lower the driving voltage and response time of the NLCs. We find that the main reason of this phenomenon is due to a large amount of reduction in the rotational viscosity of PAH liquids doped NLCs. Without the drawbacks of aggregation that the solid nanoparticles could have, the method of doping liquids provides a more reliable choice for applications in various LC display systems.     

Measurement of the Refractive Index and Estimate of the Order Parameter in Oriented Liquid Crystals

The refractive indices of a cholesteric liquid crystal, cholesteryl dodecyl carbonate (CDC), and a smectic liquid crystal, p-n-octoxybenzilidene-p-n-butylaniline (OOBBA), have been measured as a function of temperature in the transition temperature regions. The measurements were made on oriented liquid crystals with an Abbe refractometer. By combining the data on ordinary and extraordinary refractive indices, the relative order parameter, α_aS/α, is plotted as a function of temperature. The behavior of the order parameter near the cholesteric to isotropic transition of CDC is similar to a nematic liquid crystal, whereas, the order parameter in OOBBA shows only a slight temperature variation like many solids.     

The Effect of Conjugation Length and Electron Donor Groups on the Second Order Nonlinear Polarizability of Cyano Substituted Aromatic Molecules

Second order nonlinear polarizabilities, α⁽²⁾, were measured for various cyano-substituted aromatic (phenyl, biphenyl, terphenyl and phenylpyrimidine) molecules. The largest nonlinearity was found in cyano-biphenyl compounds, indicating that ring twisting may be causing a decrease in terphenyl nonlinear polarizability. Electron donating substituent effects were demonstrated by comparison of the nonlinearity of alkyl and alkoxy cyanobiphenyls. In all cases α⁽²⁾ was determined from analysis of the optical second harmonic generation from a monolayer of amphiphilic molecules spread at the air/water interface.     

Liquid Crystalline Properties of Some Derivatives with a Long Lateral Alkoxyl Group

Abstract

This paper describes the liquid the crystalline properties of 4-(4-alkoxy-phenoxycarbonyl)phenyl 4-bromo-3-alkoxy-(2), 4-cyano-3-alkoxybenzoates(3), and 2-methyl-3-alkoxybenzoates(4). 2 and 3 are essentially smectogenic, while 4 are nematogenic. The difference in the mesomorphic properties is discussed in terms of their molecular geometrical characteristics estimated by a semi-empirical molecular orbital calculation.     

Smectic A-Nematic and Nematic-Isotropic Liquid Transitions in 8CB Liquid Crystal: Comparative Analysis

A differential heat flux calorimeter has been used to study the Smectic A-Nematic and Nematic-Isotropic Liquid transitions in 8CB liquid crystal. The Faktor and Hanks model under our working conditions enables us to distinguish first-order from second-order transitions by analysis of differential signal. The critical exponent values obtained justify the proportionality between Cp evolution and the normalized differential signal (differential signal divided by the scanning rate).     

Anisotropic Surface Order in the Isotropic Phase of Nematic Liquid Crystals

A spinning-drop technique was used to study the thermal variation of surface tension of two nematic liquid crystals at the interface with an isotropic fluid. A sharp increase in interfacial tension was observed in the vicinity of the nematic-isotropic transition. The interfacial tension-temperature characteristics, unlike monotonically decreasing dependence found in most isotropic fluids, showed regions of positive slope, both in the isotropic and anisotropic phases. A positive slope in the isotropic region of the liquid crystal is interesting since it implies that excess order has developed at the surface while the buk interior remains isotropic.     

Experimental Evidence for a Hyperscaling Relation at a Nematic to Smectic A Phase Transition

A hyperscaling relation v_″ + 2v_┴ = 2 – α is examined for the nematic to smectic A transition of 4-octyloxy-4′-cyanobiphenyl (8OCB) and 4-octyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl (8CB). From the heat capacity results, 2-α is analyzed to be 1.84 ± 0.03 for 8OCB and 1.75 ± 0.02 for 8OCB. On the other hand v_″ + 2v_┴ is calculated from the results reported by X-ray experiments to be 1.87 ± 0.12 for 8OCB and 1.69 ± 0.11 for 8CB. From the above coincidences the hyperscaling relation is found to be applicable to the nematic to smectic A transition.