Thermally enhanced photoinduced molecular reorientation in a photo-crosslinkable polymer liquid crystal based on polarization triplet energy transfer

Abstract

Polarization-selective photosensitization and molecular reorientation in photo-crosslinkable polymer liquid crystal (PMCB6M) films, based on polarization-selective triplet energy transfer using LP-365 nm and LP-405 nm light with different photosensitizers, are described. A dramatic improvement in the photoreactivity of the film was observed with a small amount of photosensitizer; and a high degree of molecular reorientation and slantwise reorientation were generated when annealing the resulting films at elevated temperatures. The efficiency of reorientation depended on the photoinduced dichroism of the film.