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Physical properties and alignment of a
polymer-monomer ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture
D.S. Parmar, N.A. Clark, P. Keller, D.M. Walba, M. D. Wand
To cite this version:
Physical properties
and
alignment
of
apolymer-monomer
ferroelectric
liquid
crystal
mixture
D. S. Parmar
(1),
N. A. Clark(1),
P. Keller(4),
D. M. Walba(2)
and M. D. Wand(3)
(1)
Department
ofPhysics
and Center forOptoelectronic
Computing
Systems,
Boulder,Colorado 80309, U.S.A.
(2)
Department
ofChemistry
and Center forOptoelectronic Computing Systems, University
ofColorado, Boulder, CO 80309, U.S.A.
(3)
Displaytech,
Inc., 2200 Central Ave., Boulder, CO 80301, U.S.A.(4)
Laboratoire Leon Brillouin(CNRS),
CENSaclay,
91191Gif-sur-Yvette,
France(Reçu
le 29juin
1989,accepté
le 5 octobre1989)
Résumé. 2014
Nous décrivons un nouveau
polymère mésomorphe
enpeigne ferroélectrique
appartenant à
la famille despolysiloxanes
qui
est miscible en toutesproportions
avec uncomposé
ferroélectrique
classique,
le4-décyloxybenzoate
de4’-(s)(4-méthylhexyl)oxyphényl.
Lemélange
présente
une transitiond’alignement :
pour les concentrations élevées enpolymère,
lesplans
smectiques
s’oriententparallèlement
à la direction de frottement alors que pour des concentra-tions faibles enpolymère,
lesplans smectiques
s’oriententperpendiculairement à
cette direction(cette
dernière situation esttypique
despetites
moléculesferroélectriques).
Les échantillons orientésprésentent
une commutationélectro-optique
avec un contraste élevé, cequi
apermis
d’étudier le
signe
etl’amplitude
de lapolarisation ferroélectrique
et sa variation avec latempérature,
ainsi que l’évolution del’angle
d’inclinaison des molécules avec latempérature
et laréponse optique
en fonction duchamp appliqué.
Abstract. 2014 We
present a new Ferroelectric
Liquid Crystal
(FLC)
siloxane-basedpolymer
which exhibitscomplete miscibility
with the low molecularweight
FLC(4’[(S)-(4-methyl-hexyl)oxy]phenyl-4-(decyloxy)benzoate).
The mixture exhibits analignment
transition,orienting
with the smectic
layers along
therubbing
direction athigh polymer
concentrations and,typical
of low molecularweight liquid crystals,
normal to therubbing
direction at lowpolymer
concentra-tions. Thealigned
mixture exhibitshigh
contrastelectro-optic switching
and has beenphysically
characterized with respect to thesign
andmagnitude
of the ferroelectricpolarization
and itstemperature
dependence,
temperature variation ofoptical
tiltangle
and theoptical
response to anapplied
electric field. ClassificationPhysics
Abstracts 61.30 - 64.401. Introduction.
During
thepast
decade,
a number ofliquid crystalline polymers
have beensynthesized
andcharacterized with
respect
to theirthermodynamic
andphysical properties.
Thesepolymer
liquid crystals
includemesogenic
groups in the main chain[1]
or aspart
of the side group[2]
orpolymers
with morecomplex
structures[3].
Recently,
there has beenincreasing
interest inpolymer
ferroelectricliquid crystals
in which a permanent electricdipole density
is obtainedby
incorporation
of chiral side groups to form a tilted chiral smecticphase analogous
to those formedby
low molecularweight
liquid
crystals.
Ofparticular
interest is thepotential
of thepolymer
ferroelectricliquid
crystals
and their mixtures with low mass ferroelectric smectic C*liquid crystals
forapplication
in the fastswitching,
bistable surface stabilized ferroelectricliquid crystal
(SSFLC) electro-optic
devices of Clark andLagerwall
[4, 5].
A
variety
ofpolymer
ferroelectricliquid
crystals
have beensynthesized
to date[6-16],
however,
not much work has been done on mixtures with monomerhomologs
or on thephysical
characterization ofpolymer
FLC materials and mixtures for SSFLCapplications.
In thepresent
paper, wereport
our results on SSFLCalignment, phase
characterization,
electro-optic switching
responses,optical
tiltangles
and ferroelectricpolarization
measurements on a newpolysiloxane
[17]-chiral
epoxide
[18]
based side chainpolymer
ferroelectricliquid crystal
W219[19]
synthesized
in ourlaboratory,
and its mixtures with the low mass FLC W82[20].
2. Phasediagram.
The chemical structure and the
phase
transitiontemperatures
for W219 and W82 aregiven
infigure
1. Thephase
identification has been doneusing polarizing microscopy.
On
cooling
fromisotropic liquid phase,
W219undergoes
aphase
transition to the C*phase
at 147 °C and continues in thisphase
until 85°C,
below which itundergoes
aglass
transition which is maintained down to roomtemperature.
We have not seensamples
form thecrystal
phase
from theglass phase
even afterkeeping
them for several weeks at roomtemperature.
Fig.
1. -Structure and transition temperatures for W219 and W82.
Fig.
2. - PhaseSince the
starting
material at roomtemperature
is acrystalline phase,
we believe theglassy
state is
supercooled
from the C*phase.
The
miscibility
of thepolymer
ferroelectricliquid crystal
W219 with the low massferroelectric
liquid
crystal
W82 has been tested. Thesecomponents
mix very well in the entire range ofpolymer
FLC concentrations as shown infigure
2. It may be noted that at - 80 % ofW219,
the smectic A(SmA)
phase
appears and continuesthrough
the entire range towards W82. The C* range isquite
large
in all the W219-W82 mixtures.3.
Alignment.
In smectic
polymer
side chainliquid
crystals
the side groups areorganized
intolayers,
muchlike the monomeric
smectics,
while the backbone chains are confinedlargely
to lie in thelayering planes.
Thus thephase
orientationproduced by
ananisotropic
surface treatment willdepend
on whichpart
of thepolymer
molecule is moststrongly coupled
to the surfaceanisotropy.
Ananisotropic
surface(e.g.
rubbednylon)
which orients the backboneparallel
toa
particular
direction(z )
in the surface will induce smecticlayers parallel
to z.If,
on the otherhand,
thecoupling
isprimarily
to the side groups,then,
as in low massliquid
crystals,
the sidechain molecules line up
along
zforming
the smecticlayers
perpendicular
to z. In our side chainpolymer-monomer homolog
liquid
crystal
mixture,
we observe a transition between these twoalignment modes, obtaining
the former(layers
//
z)
athigh polymer
concentration and the latter(layers
..Lz)
at lowpolymer
concentration. We usednylon
brushed surfaces toalign
ourpolymer
FLCsamples.
The ITO coatedglass
plates,
one of whichhaving polyimide
spacers of~ 3
um, were
nylon
surface coated and then hair brushed in one direction and assembled in aFig.
3(continued).
way such that the
rubbing
direction on the two surfacessandwiching
theliquid
crystal
wasparallel.
Thepolymer
FLC was heated to theisotropic
liquid
phase
to fill the cell. It may beFig.
4. - A shearaligned
pure W219 cell onnylon
coated and brushed ITOglass.
(a)
Bright
state and(b)
Black state withswitching
the field inappropriate
direction. The cell isstrongly
bistable and the two states are surface stabilized in the entire range of temperature. The arrows indicate therubbing,
shearAs the pure W219
sample
is cooled from theisotropic
phase,
smectic C focal conics startappearing
below 146 °C as shown infigure
3a. The focal conics are lined upperpendicular
tothe direction of
rubbing
indicating
thelayer
orientationalong
therubbing
direction,
indicatedby
the arrows. The focal conics grow in size as thesample
is further cooled(Fig. 3b).
Aslight
shearalong
the direction ofrubbing
makes these focal conics grow normal to theshearing
direction(Fig. 3c).
Simultaneouscooling
andshearing
leave thesample
in aperfect planar
orientation(layers
parallel
to therubbing
andshearing
direction),
the surface stabilizedbright
state of which is shown in
figure
4a.Application
of an electric field inappropriate
directionswitches the
sample
to the other surface stabilized state shown as black infigure
4b. The cell infigure
4 isbistable,
either stateremaining
even when the field is removed.It may be noted here that in pure
W219,
thealignment
is maintained even below theglass
transition
(85 °C)
temperature.
Upon
cooling
the cell under a d.c. field( -
10 7
V/m)
to roomtemperature,
it was found to bepoled,
avoltage
of - 0.6 Vappearing
measured across it uponremoving
the externalvoltage
source at roomtemperature.
A furtherinteresting
aspect
of theW219 cell is the absence of
zig-zag
walls[21].
-W219 was mixed with W82 and a 20 %
by weight
mixture of W219 in W82 was observed tohave a
phase
sequence I-A-C*. the actualphase
transitiontemperatures
are shown infigure
2. Smectic Alayers
in this mixture are formedperpendicular
to direction ofrubbing
and shear asis
typical
for low molecularweight liquid crystals
on thenylon
coatedglass plates.
Thetypical
texture of the shear
aligned
cell in the C*phase
has a texture as shown infigure
5a. Thecommonly
observedzig-zag
wall defects[21]
are observed in this case as shown infigure
5b.Fig.
5. - C* texture in a shearaligned
cell of 20 % W219 in W82.(a)
The smecticlayers
areFig.
5(continued).
Thus as the concentration of W219 is
decreased,
thelayer alignment
shifts fromlayers
parallel
to the
rubbing
(polymer)
tolayers perpendicular
to therubbing
(monomer).
The crossover occurs for anapproximately
1:1 mixture.Cooling
thesample
of 1:1mixture,
in anylon
coated and rubbed ITOglass
cell,
fromparallel
to the direction ofrubbing
and the otherperpendicular
to it. There are more focalconics oriented
perpendicular
to therubbing
direction thanalong
it. Thus shearalignment
along
therubbing
direction is easier andproduces
a cell with fewer defects as shown infigure
5c where thegeneral alignment
isgood
andplanar
withonly
a small number of defectsseen in the form of black lines. No
zig-zag
wall defects are observed in this case. Thissample
is surface stabilized and bistable as for pureW219,
itending
up in aglassy
state uponcooling
toroom
temperature
as does W219.4. Polarization and tilt
angle
measurements.The
typical sample
geometry
for the measurements is shown infigure
6. The C*phase
is sandwiched in between two ITO coatedglass plates
on which a very thinnylon
film isdeposited
and thesurfaces
are brushedparallel
to theplates.
Theplates
areseparated by
a - 3um thick
polyimide
spacerdeposited
on one of theplates.
The area of the ITO electrode is 1.17cm2.
The SSFLCsample
cell thus behaves like a thinbirefringent
slab in which theoptic
axis rotation can be inducedby
theapplication
of avoltage
[22].
Tilt
angle 0
has been measured as a function oftemperature
by measuring
theangle
between the two stable states of the cell with an electric field
applied.
For agiven
direction ofthe
field,
the C* director isplaced along
one of thepolarization
directions of the crossedFig.
6. 2013polarizers
of theoptical microscope.
In this situation the cellextinguishes.
The electric field is reversed anddepending
on thesign
ofpolarization,
thesample
is rotated so that the director lines upalong
the samepolarization
direction. Theangle
between these two director orientations is a measure of twice the tiltangle
0.The
polarization
P has been measuredby integration
of thepolarization
currentpeak
observed
during
theapplication
of atriangular
wave field. Thetypical
currentpeak
and thedriving triangular
wave field traces on a dual traceoscillogram
are shown infigure
7. Thecurrent
peak
isintegrated
with thehelp
of thestorage
oscilloscope
and acomputer.
Fig.
7. -Typical oscillograms
and theresulting polarization
currentpeak
with a 30 Vpeak
topeak
triangular
wavedriving
field on W219(200 ms/div).
Typical
variation of tiltangle
0 andpolarization
P withtemperature
are shown infigure
8a,
b for pure
W219,
W82 and their mixturesgiven
in table I. It isinteresting
to note that for pureW219, 0
stays
almost constant art - 29.5° in alarge
temperature
range anddrops only
slightly
near the first order I-C* transition. For W82 and its other mixtures with W219 which all show Aphase
above the C*phase, 0 drops continuously
to zero near the A-C* transitiontemperature
(Tc)
indicative of a second order A-C* transition. Infigure
8,
Tc
for W219 is the I-C* transitiontemperature.
There is ajump
in 0 even for lower concentrations of W219(Fig. 8a).
Forexample,
atTc -
T = 21.0°C,
0jumps
from 16.5° for 100 % W82 to 26.2° for a20 % mixture of W219 in W82. Further increase in W219 concentration does not
change 0
toTable I. 2013 Materials used in the
any considerable extent as is evident from the fact that the saturation value of 0 for pure W219 is 31.0°.
The
temperature
variation of P for W219 and its 20 % and 50 % mixtures with W82 is shown infigure
8b.Since,
W82 is veryweakly
ferroelectric,
independent
measurement of itspolarization
has not beenpossible
and the saturated value of itspolarization
has beendetermined
by extrapolation
ofpolarization
with various mixtures. Thepolarization
of W82 is P = - 0.4nC/cm 2.
It is further noted fromfigure
8b that whereas P for W219-W82 mixturesfalls
continuously
to zero atTc -
T * = 0 °C for pureW219,
itdrops only slightly
near theI-C* transition
temperature.
Fig.
8. -Temperature dependence
of(a)
0 and(b)
P for W219 concentrations :0 - 0 % ; . - 20 % ;
o - 50 %; + - 100 %.
Fig.
9. - The variation of the saturation value of P with W219 concentration in W82 is linear.From the
extrapolated
value of P for W82 andusing
the saturated values of P for its mixtures withW219,
a linearrelationship
between the W219 concentration and P is obtained5.
Response
time measurements.Optical
response to anapplied
step
voltage
has been measuredusing polarizing microscopy
and an associated
photodetector
arrangement.
Atypical
dual traceoscillogram respectively
for a
voltage
step
from - 15 V to + 15 V and thecorresponding optical
responsesignal
for W219 is shown infigure
10. Similar responses are obtained for all the materials underinvestigation.
Thesymmetry
in theshape
of theoptical
response curve for both directions ofthe electric field
suggests
that the C*layers
are more or less normal to theplates
[22]
in W219 and nosignificant layer
tilt can beinterpreted
from these observations.X-ray
measurements are,however,
required
to confirm thispreliminary
observation.By
changing
themagnitude
of theapplied voltage,
the time for 10 % to 90 % rise inintensity
of the transmittedlight
(defined
here as rise timeTr)
and rise time variation withapplied
field at differenttemperatures
forFig.
10. - Dualtrace
oscillogram
of atypical optical
response curve with a 30 V p-p square waveapplied
to W219(100 ms/div).
W219 has been measured as shown in
figure
11a. Thedelay
time Td defined as the time for the first 10 % rise in transmittedlight intensity
at the sametemperatures
is shown infigure
11b. In alog-log plot,
the rise time vs. theapplied
fieldrelationship,
as shown infigure
12 is linear.Accordingly
the Tr = 11 1 P E
relationship
holds forpolymer liquid crystals
too. For a fixedapplied
field of - 1.5 x107 V/m,
we have measured the Tr as a function oftemperature
for W219 and other materials underinvestigation.
The results are shown infigure
13.It is
interesting
to note that :1)
ForW219,
T-r r increases near the I-C* transitiontemperature.
On the otherhand,
mixtures with W82 demonstrate a fall near the A-C*
transition ;
Fig.
11. - Variation of(a)
rise and(b)
delay
times withapplied voltage
for a 3 um thicksample
ofW219 ; 0 -
135* ;
n -130° ; # -
120 *C.Fig.
12. 2013Fig.
13. - Rise timevs.
Tc -
T for the W219 and W82 mixtures of table 1.. - 20% ;
D - 50 % ;+ -
100 %.6. Conclusions.
1.
By
using
rubbednylon
surfaces,
we have been able toalign polymer liquid crystals
and their mixtures with low mass ferroelectricliquid crystals.
Thealignment
so obtained is asgood
as for any low mass FLC.2. The
growth
of C* focal conic domains relative to the direction ofrubbing
on anylon
surface indicates that the
polysiloxane
backbone in these side chainpolymers prefers
to line upalong
therubbing
directionresulting
in smecticlayer
orientation in therubbing
direction. Since the extinction even in theisotropic liquid phase
of the purepolymer
isincomplete,
webelieve that the
polymer
backbone remainsalways
lined up on the surface in therubbing
direction.3. As a result of the
polymer
backbonelining
upalong
therubbing direction,
forpolymer
concentrations ofgreater
than 50 % the smecticlayers
are formedalong
therubbing
directionwith the
polymer
backbone in theplane
of thelayers
and thesample
needs to be sheared in therubbing
direction in order toget
almostperfect planar alignment.
This may becompared
to low mass FLC’s where
shearing
normal to therubbing
direction leads togood alignment.
At low
polymer
concentration,
the usualalignment
of smecticlayers
normal to therubbing
is obtained.4. The absence of
zig-zag
walls athigh polymer liquid crystal
concentration indicates that the smecticlayers
are more or less normal to theplates
and do not form chevron texture[21].
5. The tilt
angle
andpolarization
behaviour withtemperature
of thepolymer
liquid crystal
is similar to that for low massliquid crystals. Although
theoptical
response is slowowing
tovery
high
orientationalviscosity
of thepolymer,
theswitching
mechanism seems to be thesame as for the low mass FLC’s.
Also,
the mixtures with low mass FLC’s reveal the totalAcknowledgments.
This work was
supported by
NSF Contract DMR8611192, by
NSF Grant CDR 8622236through
the National Science FoundationEngineering
Research Center forOpto-electronic
Computing Systems,
andby
the Office of Naval Research.References
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