Enhancement of an anomalous photovoltaic effect in pi-conjugated ferroelectric liquid crystal by a surface stabilization

Abstract

Recently, we have developed pi-conjugated ferroelectric liquid crystals which exhibited an anomalous photovoltaic (APV) effect. In the latest study, we have clarified the contribution of the carrier transport properties and the spontaneous polarization to the APV response. However, the APV current was quite small and the performance remained low in that system, due to the polarization relaxation behavior. In this study, we aim to stabilize the polarization state and to enhance the APV performance by a surface stabilization effect. Therefore, we try to prepare the planar-oriented liquid-crystalline thin films with sub-micron thickness.