Use of the Boulder Model to Predict Coupling between Dipoles in the Core and Chiral Tail of Fluorinated Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Abstract

Ferroelectric (chiral) smectic C* liquid crystals have been shown to exhibit high speed, multistate electro-optic, display device and opto-electronic computing applications, particularly when incorporated into the surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) light valve. High polarizations are necessary to achieve the speeds desired in opto-electronic computing, waveguide, and fiber-optic applications. By coupling the dipole(s) in the core of the FLC with dipole(s) associated with the chiral tail, a significant increase in polarization can be achieved.

Use of the Boulder Model allows us to examine the most probable conformations of an FLC molecule in a hypothetical smectic C “binding site” and thereby predict the sign and order of magnitude of the spontaneous polarization based on electronic and steric arguments for the particular chemical structure.