While liquid crystals have become a central component of modern display technologies due to their unique voltage-sensitive polarizing ability, there has been little research into their capacity for standalone information storage. Recent work has demonstrated that multi-component donor-acceptor columnar liquid crystals (DACLCs), comprised of diaminonaphthalene (DAN) and naphthalenediimide (NDI) aromatics, can be selectively written and re-written with exquisite control over the amount and direction of molecular alignment. This can be achieved quickly and easily through a simple process of controlled laser-induced temperature gradient. Importantly, these materials exhibit strong dichroic properties, whereby charge-transfer (CT) absorbance—and thus transmittance of linearly polarized light (LPL)—can be moderated by varying the angle of columnar alignment relative to an applied LPL source. As a result, films containing multiple regions aligned at different angles will transmit light differently in each of these regions. Here, we demonstrate a potential application of dichroism in multi-region DACLC films to high-density, bit-wise data storage.

Technology applications of self-assembling DACLCs: Information storage and encryption techniques

2019 Spring National Meeting

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