Influence of Photoconductivity on the Photorefractive Effect of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystal Mixtures

The influence of photoconductivity on the photorefractive effect of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) was investigated. Mixtures of phenylpyrimidine derivatives, a chiral dopant, and a viscosity reducer were used as host FLC materials and two types of photoconductive compounds and an electron acceptor compound were added. The photorefractive effect was evaluated using two-beam coupling experiments. It was found that the magnitude of the gain coefficient was affected by the difference between the mobility of the photoconductive compound and that of the electron acceptor.