Effect of the photochemical reactivity of the photoconductive chiral dopant on the durability of photorefractive ferroelectric liquid crystal blends

Ferroelectric liquid crystal blends composed of a smectic liquid crystalline mixture, a photoconductive chiral dopant, and an electron trap reagent exhibit significant photorefractivity together with rapid responses. As such, they allow the dynamic amplification of moving optical signals. In the present work, the durability of a photorefractive ferroelectric liquid crystal blend was investigated. A series of photoconductive chiral dopants was prepared and the durability of blends incorporating these dopants during laser irradiation was examined. In addition, the effect of the conduction of photogenerated ionic species on the photorefractivity decay was clarified.