Design and Synthesis of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals for High Speed Applications

本研究的长期科学目标是增加对铁电液晶相的分子结构与物理性质的相关性的理解，并为新材料的设计测试策略。实际目标是发明具有适合商业百叶窗和大面积矩阵显示器的性能的新材料。铁电近晶C液晶已被证明具有高速、多态电光和显示器件的应用，特别是当结合到表面稳定的铁电液晶光阀中时。用于此类器件的最佳材料将具有高铁电极化和低取向粘度，从而提供快速的电光响应时间、宽的温度范围和优异的化学稳定性。目前还没有材料具备所需的速度、温度范围和稳定性，以允许制造以灰度视频速率运行的大面积多路复用阵列。这项工作将致力于开发满足这些需求的材料。展示了尾部的立体中心与核心取代的芳香环取向的“立体耦合”概念，以产生具有极高极化和低粘度的晶体家族，用于上述高速应用。

The long range scientific goals of this research are to increase the understanding of the correlation of molecular structure with physical properties of ferroelectric liquid crystal phases and to test strategies for the design of new materials. The practical goal is the invention of new materials with properties suited for incorporation into commercial shutters and large-area matrix displays. Ferroelectric smectic C liquid crystals have been shown to exhibit high speed, multistate electro-optic and display device applications, particularly when incorporated into the surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal light valve. The best materials for use in such devices would have a high ferroelectric polarization and low orientational viscosity, affording a fast electro-optic response time, broad temperature range, and excellent chemical stability. No materials currently available possess the required speed, temperature range, and stability to allow fabrication of large area multiplexed arrays operating at video rates with gray scale. This work will be directed toward developing materials to satisfy these needs. Demonstrating the concept "steric coupling" of stereocenters in the tail with orientation of substituted aromatic rings in the core to produce a family of crystals with extremely high polarization and low viscosity for use in the above stated high speed applications.