Metal-containing liquid crystals with potential application in optical storage devices

Abstract

Three optically active oxovanadium(IV)-containing metallomesogens have been prepared and their mesomorphic properties investigated. It is found that enantiotropic chiral phases are stabilized when the molecular system promotes the anti-ferromagnetic coupling of individual molecules into associated pairs. The molecular optical rotation of the non-mesomorphic ligands is greatly enhanced on complexation to an oxovanadium(IV) metal centre to give the mesogenic complex. The mesophase alignment can be retained by cooling to room temperature and this may be utilized in the fabrication of a low cost, multi-session, ‘write-read-erase’ optical storage device with low power consumption.