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[TECHNOLOGY
OPPORTUNITY 97-005]
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Compounds for Doping Liquid
Crystal Hosts
97-005
Description
Ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) have potential
applications in several display technologies, including
flat panel displays, light valves and optical switches.
To exhibit ferroelectricity, a smectic C liquid crystal
phase must be composed, or be doped with, chiral molecules.
The search for new chiral materials has been directly
motivated by the potential applications of such materials
in FLCs. Put between two layers of glass, the chiral
smectic C(SC*) liquid crystal phase exhibits a spontaneous
polarization. In the simplest case, the polarization
may be caused to switch direction if an electric field
is applied across the glass slides. This switching event
is accompanied by a change in molecular orientation
in the FLC that can be sensed using crossed polarizers
as a change in transmission of light through the FLC.
Hence, an FLC can be used to control the transmission
of light as a light switch that operates on the microsecond
scale. This makes FLCs ideally suited to optoeelectronic
and photonic applications.
There are several benefits
of this technology:
• the new compounds cause spontaneous polarization
photomodulation in the visible light range;
• one of the new compounds causes a photo-induced
increase in the spontaneous polarization of the chiral
smectic liquid crystal phase by a factor of 2.5;
• no destabilization of the smectic crystal liquid
phase occurs upon photomodulation, a crucial requirement
for its application as a long-term digital information
storage device; and
• the modulation is photochemically reversible.
PARTEQ Innovations is responsible for the commercialization
of this technology.
Commercial
status:
We have recently
filed for patent protection and are now seeking commercial
partners. Further information and data will only be
available under the cover of a Confidentiality Agreement.
Full patent rights are available.
Contact:
Anne Vivian-Scott
Director, Commercial Development
Phone: (613) 533-6000 ext. 75513
FAX: (613) 533-6853
E-mail: avivianscott@parteqinnovations.com
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