New room-temperature ferroelectric liquid crystals ― material constants and electro-optic properties

A binary ferroelectric liquid-crystal mixture having both room-temperature ferroelectricity and a large spontaneous polarization has been developed. The temperature range is from 20°C to 34°C. The spontaneous polarization is almost the same value, 4 nC/cm 2 , as that in DOBAMBC. Five material constants for the mixture; the transition temperature, spontaneous polarization, helical pitch, tilt angle and birefringence, are reported. A guest-host-type device was fabricated using the mixture, and some potential problems in the application of the materials to electro-optical switching devices are pointed out on the basis of the optical properties of this device.