Journal of Physical Chemistry B, Vol.107, No.18, 4227-4236, 2003
Electric-field-induced reorientation of a ferroelectric liquid crystal molecule without a carboxylate group near the stereocenter studied by time-resolved infrared spectroscopy combined with normalized sample-sample two-dimensional correlation spectroscopy
The orientation dynamics of a ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) with a naphthalene ring and without a carboxylate group near the stereocenter (FLC-2) during the electric-field-induced switching has been investigated by time-resolved infrared (IR) spectroscopy combined with normalized sample-sample two-dimensional (2D) correlation spectroscopy. To reveal the orientation dynamics, we have proposed a normalized sample-sample 2D correlation spectroscopy that is calculated by normalizing a sample-sample 2D correlation spectrum over every column or row. An important advantage of the normalized sample-sample 2D correlation spectroscopy over sample-sample 2D correlation spectroscopy is that the excessive information is deleted and more precise information therefore can be extracted even from spectra with a rather low signal-to-noise ratio. The normalized sample-sample 2D correlation spectroscopy allows us to explore the differences in the dynamics of each segment more clearly than the usual sample-sample 2D correlation spectroscopy. Time-resolved IR spectra of FLC-2 in a planar-aligned cell were measured over two delay time ranges from 0 to 150 mus and from 200 to 350 mus at an interval of 10 mus with the polarization angle of 45.0degrees under a rectangular electric field of 3 V with a 2.5 kHz repetition rate in the smectic-C* (Sm-C*) phase at 115 degreesC. The normalized sample-sample correlation spectroscopy was applied to these time-resolved spectra. We explored the reorientation process of the alkyl chains, the core, and the carboxylate group of FLC-2 in the positive and negative half-periods of the electric-field-induced switching. It has been found from the present study that the reorientation track of the core in the positive half-period is different from that in the negative half-period, while the reorientation tracks of the C=O dipole moment and alkyl chains are very similar between the positive and negative half-periods. The present study has also revealed that the orientation profile of the core moiety is different from those of the alkyl chains and the C=O dipole moment, and the difference in the profile depends on the change of dc electric field from -3 to +3 V and from +3 to -3 V at an interval of 0.25V. It seems that the core moiety functions in the presence of memory properties. Furthermore, a tilt angle for FLC-2 with a naphthalene ring and without a carboxylate group near the stereocenter is smaller than other similar FLCs with a naphthalene ring and a carboxylate group near the stereocenter. It has been suggested from the analysis of the polarization-angle dependent spectra under the external dc electric field of two polarities that the carboxylate group near the stereocenter plays an important role in forming a large tilt angle and that the carboxylate group in the core moiety is responsible for the emergence of ferroelectricity.