Potential liquid crystal mixtures for Co2 laser application

Abstract
Infrared transmission of 25 liquid crystal compounds was evaluated. Based on these results, a liquid crystal mixture consisting of fluoro and dialkyl diphenyl‐diacetylene homologs was developed for CO2 laser application. This mixture exhibits a wide nematic range, high birefringence, low viscoelastic coefficient, and relatively small absorption at two CO2 laser lines: 10.59 and 10.77 μm. Its figure of merit is three times higher than the E44 commercial mixture at room temperature.