Probe of Molecular Ordering in Photoconductive Smectic Mesophases by Transient Photocurrent Measurement

Abstract

We have studied the carrier transport properties of the two series of smectic mesophases, from SmA to SmE phases, and from SmC to SmG phases in 2-pahenynaphthalene and terthiophene derivatives by time of flight measurements. We examine the experimental data with the hopping transport formalism as a function of the molecular distance with the reference to that from X-ray diffraction. We propose another aspect of the carrier transport characteristics as a probe for elucidating the molecular alignment in the smectic layer.

Key Words:

• carrier transport
• photoconductivity
• smectic phases
• time-of-flight technique
• terthiophene
• 2-phenylnaphthalene