Alignment Change of Discotic Liquid Crystal Domains with Wavelength Tunable CO2 Laser Irradiation

Abstract

Infrared-induced alignment change with wavelength tunable CO2 laser irradiation for columnar liquid crystal domains was investigated for a triphenylene-based discotic liquid crystal. A uniformly aligned alignment change of domains was observed when a plused linearly polarized infrared laser light corresponding to the wavelength of the aromatic C-O-C stretching vibration band (9.65µm) was irradiated while it was not re-aligned uniformly with continious wave irradiation. The results strongly imply that the infrared irradiation is a possible technique for device fabrication by use of columnar mesophase as a liquid crystalline semiconductor.