A coloured ferroelectric side chain polymer

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Abstract
Coloured ferroelectric liquid-crystalline side chain copolymers containing 5 per cent and 15 per cent of an azo dye were synthesized and characterized by DSC, GPC and optical microscopy. Order parameters, S, of the azo compound exceeding 0·8 were measured in the frozen smectic phase for the 5 per cent copolymer. The copolymers exhibit fast electrooptic switching in the range of a few hundred microseconds to milliseconds in the Sc* phase. Both linear (i.e. electroclinic-like) and ferroelectric switching have been observed. Tilt angles of ∼19° and spontaneous polarization of ∼300nC cm−2 have been recorded in the Sc* phase.