Preparation and Magnetic & Electric Responses of Chiral Organic Radical Liquid Crystals Exhibiting Both Ferroelectricity and Paramagnetism

Abstract

Introduction of chirality to paramagnetic liquid crystals may give rise to ferroelectricity and thereby the cooperative effect between the magnetic and electric anisotropy. Although there are a few exmaples of ferroelectric paramagnetic metallomesogens, they have limited utility because of their high viscosity. Therefore, we have investigated several racemic and enantiomerically enriched organic radical mesogens which should be less viscous than metallomesogens. Some compounds we have prepared exhibit SmC* Phases and application of an electric field to these LC in ITO cells has induced ferroelectricity with Ps(max)=24 nC/cm2, which is comparable to these of the ferroelectric merallomesogens.