Azobenzene polymer-stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals:: photoalignment and morphology

We exploit the use of azobenzene-containing polymer networks in ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs). One possible utility of the polymer in such a system is to induce and stabilize a bulk alignment of the FLC host, without surface orientation layers, through the photoorientation of the azobenzene groups on the network under linearly polarized irradiation. Three azobenzene monomers, including an achiral diacrylate, a chiral dimethacrylate and an achiral divinyl ether, were synthesized and investigated with two commercial FLC mixtures; polymerization was carried out thermally and photochemically. The photoinduced alignment of FLC was observed with two of these azobenzene polymers. Different phase separation behaviours and resulting morphologies were observed.