2B03 光応答性液晶ネットワークの光スイッチング挙動

抄録

Photoresponsive liquid crystalline polymer networks with macroscopically uniaxial molecular orientation were prepared by polymerization of mixtures of liquid crystalline mono and di-acrylates, and azobenzene compound in a homogeneous glass cell at a nematic phase. The photoisomerizatiion of the azobenzene compound resulted in a change in a birefringence. The photochemical change in the birefringence was investigated by using a single pulse irradiation from a Nd:YAG laser as light source. In the liquid crystalline polymer network with 5mol% of cross-linking density, we observed a response time in a range of a few microseconds and a restoration time in a range of a few microhundreds of seconds.