Development of liquid-crystalline materials for IR sensing

The pyroelectric properties of three chiral smectic liquid crystalline materials have been investigated. The magnitude of the pyroelectric coefficient for in two of these compounds is very high exceeding 200 nC/cm2K. A mixture containing one of these compounds exhibits a high pyroelectric coefficient over a temperature range that is attractive for thermal (or IR) sensing applications. The relevant figure of merit of these materials as elements for IR sensors is discussed in comparison to those that are currently used in sensing devices.