Transient photoconductivity in a discotic hexagonal plastic crystal

Photoconductivity in the columnar phases of a glassy discotic twin

Ferroelectric liquid-crystalline elastomers

Oriented liquid-crystalline (LC) elastomers (polar monodomains, concerning the direction of polarisation) have been prepared from polar monodomains of ferroelectric LC-polysiloxanes by a radical photocrosslinking process. Attempts to perform ferroelectric switching lead in these soft elastomers to an elastic stress which prohibits—for low voltages—a complete reorientation of the polar axis (ferroelectric switching). A ferroelectric switching can, however, be observed for high voltages. The loop of hysteresis of this switching is asymmetric concerning the zero point of the driving voltage. Piezoelectric measurements show that these elastomers combine an elastic memory for one polar state wit…

Electronic Properties of Discotic LC-Materials

Abstract We have made extensive studies of the charge-carrier mobilities in the discotic hexagonal mesophases of triphenylene-based discotic liquid crystals. Using the time-of-flight technique, transient photocurrents were measured yielding charge-carrier mobilities for various electric fields and temperatures. Starting from promising results obtained with the monomeric discotic liquid crystalline model compound hexapentyloxytriphenylene (H5T), we synthesized a “discotic twin” with two triphenylene units linked together by a suitable spacer. Additionally, we synthesized a discotic liquid crystalline oligomer consisting of four triphenylene units which are bound to a flexible cyclosiloxane r…

Photoconductivity in Discotic Liquid Crystals: A New Class of High-Mobility Materials

Abstract Using a time-of-flight technique, different transport mechanisms, deep trapping, multiple shallow trapping and Gaussian transport, can be observed in the different temperature and phase regions of the liquidcrystalline (LC) photoconductor hexapentyloxytriphenylene (HPT). Transient photocurrents and carrier mobilities for various temperatures, electric fields, and sample histories were examined. The ideal intrinsic Gaussian transport, observed for holes in the mesophase, puts HPT into a new class of highmobility materials with both hole mobilities on the order of 1.10−3cm2/Vs and a steplike current decay. These features result from the fact that there is obviously neither a position…