Design and Synthesis of Linear Electrooptic Effect Smectic A* Materials

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目是在材料化学的一般领域和液晶领域的子领域。本实验的主要目的是合成新型铁电(手性)近晶C*液晶，这将显着提高基于表面稳定铁电液晶光阀的电光和显示器件的性能。FLC已被证明表现出高速、多态电光和显示设备的应用，特别是当结合到SSFLC光阀中时。SSFLC器件的双态(数字)性质在诸如无源多路复用平板显示器的应用中具有某些优势，但由于缺乏中间光学状态而不允许自然的灰阶效果。在手性近晶液晶中观察到的另一种效应是电倾斜效应，它基于近晶A*相，并对外加电压提供线性模拟响应。目前可用的材料由于对温度变化的敏感性而受到限制，因此需要温度控制。该项目追求一种实现温度不敏感的方法，从而极大地扩展了这种效果的有用范围。新材料将是纯手性近晶A组分和含有具有宽温度范围和快速电光响应时间的新组分的材料混合物。温度不敏感的电临床设备将填补这一空白，需要相对温度不敏感、快速(10微秒)的线性电光效应。%在这个SBIR第一阶段项目中，Displaytech应该证明该小型企业早些时候开发的基于SSFLC技术的改进电光和显示设备性能的拟议方法的可行性。这项研究的结果应该会为Displaytech进行第二阶段的活动提供明确的指导。

This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is in the general area of materials chemistry and in the subfield of liquid crystals. The thrust of this experimental activity is the synthesis of new ferroelectric (chiral) smectic C* liquid crystals (FLCs) which will markedly enhance the performance of electrooptic and display devices based on the surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) light valve. FLCs have been shown to exhibit high speed, multistate electro-optic and display device applications, particularly when incorporated into the SSFLC light valve. The two state (digital) nature of the SSFLC device possesses certain advantages in applications such as passive multiplexed flat panel displays but does not allow for a natural gray-scale effect due to the lack of intermediate optical states. Another effect observed in chiral smectic liquid crystals, the electroclinic effect, is based on the smectic A* phase and affords a linear analog response to applied voltage. Currently available materials are limited by their sensitivity to temperature variation, and thus, need for temperature control. This project pursues a method to achieve temperature insensitivity, thereby greatly expanding the breadth of usefulness of this effect. The new materials will be both pure chiral smectic A components and mixtures of materials containing the new components with broad temperature ranges and fast electro-optic response times. Temperature insensitive electroclinic devices will fill the gap requiring a relatively temperature insensitive, fast (10 microseconds) linear electrooptical effect. %%% In this SBIR Phase I project, Displaytech should demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach to improving the performance of electro-optic and display devices based on SSFLC technology that was developed earlier by this small business. The results of this research should provide clear guidance regarding Displaytech's proceeding with a Phase II activity.