A comparative study of side chain liquid crystalline polymers and their monomers designed for nonlinear optical applications

Characterizations of side chain liquid crystalline polymers and their monomers point toward chemical structures and processing techniques which optimize their suitability for nonlinear optical applications. Polymers with methacrylate backbones and nitrostilbene or nitrobiphenyl side groups are studied; they tend to form smectic phases, but no solid crystallinity. By copolymerizing with nonmesogenic backbone units, the smectic-isotropic transition temperature can be controlled and may fall below the glass transition temperature. There is evidence for a significant degree of pretransitional alignment due to the surface fields, and mesogen ordering perpendicular to flow-induced backbone alignment. Very rapid cooling can suppress the highly scattering polydomain smectic phase.