Photoinduced isothermal phase transitions of liquid-crystalline macrocyclic azobenzenes.

Photoinduced phase transitions in liquid crystalline systems

In recent years, a field of research that is growing steadily is the photoinduced phenomenon in which the incident light itself brings about molecular ordering/ disordering of the liquid crystalline system. This particular aspect of photonics, in which light can be controlled by light as a stimulus, is being proposed as the future technology for high-speed information processing and photochromi...

Photoinduced Molecular Reorientation and Relaxation in a Liquid Crystalline Polymer

In this paper we present a study of photoinduced eeects, including molecular relaxation in a side chain liquid crystalline polymer. In particular, we have studied relaxation phenomena using Ellipsometry and Photoinduced Birefringence in pump-probe experiments, which were carried out as a function of temperature, optical pump intensity and sample preparation and history. Two speciic areas were i...

Photoresponsive block copolymers containing azobenzenes and other chromophores.

Photoresponsive block copolymers (PRBCs) containing azobenzenes and other chromophores can be easily prepared by controlled polymerization. Their photoresponsive behaviors are generally based on photoisomerization, photocrosslinking, photoalignment and photoinduced cooperative motions. When the photoactive block forms mesogenic phases upon microphase separation of PRBCs, supramolecular cooperat...

Mesomorphic behaviors and photoconductive properties of binary systems composed of electron donor and acceptor mesogens

Mesomorphic behaviors and photoconductive properties in the binary mixture composed of electron donor (R10D) and acceptor (R10A) mesogens were investigated in three different phases, i.e. crystalline, liquid crystalline and isotropic liquid phases. Optoelectronic properties for R10DA (R10D:R10AZ50:50 mol%) were compared with those of the individual R10D and R10A in the different phases. The mag...

Effect of heat and film thickness on a photoinduced phase transition in azobenzene liquid crystalline polyesters