Bistable properties

The results shown graphically in Hgs. 19 and 20 are noteworthy. The conduction through voltages were 0.65 and 3.8 V, respectively, for Ag-PPCN and Ag-PTDCN. Before conduction though, the thin film was an insulator with a resistivity of about 10 ft m, and after conduction through the thin film had metallic conduction with a resistivity of only about 0.7 ft m. The resistance difference between the insulator state and the conductor state was up to about seven orders (10 ). Hence, the electrical bistability properties of these polymer thin films were quite evident, and the insulator phase and conductor phase could be defined as the O state and 1 state, respectively. Furthermore, this bistability property was stable... 

To produce novel LC phase behavior and properties, a variety of polymer/LC composites have been developed. These include systems which employ liquid crystal polymers (5), phase separation of LC droplets in polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) (4), incorporating both nematic (5,6) and ferroelectric liquid crystals (6-10). Polymer/LC gels have also been studied which are formed by the polymerization of small amounts of monomer solutes in a liquid crystalline solvent (11). The polymer/LC gel systems are of particular interest, rendering bistable chiral nematic devices (12) and polymer stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals (PSFLCs) (1,13), which combine fast electro-optic response (14) with the increased mechanical stabilization imparted by the polymer (75). 

The interplay between oscillations and bistability has been addressed in detailed molecular models for the cell cycles of amphibian embryos, yeast and somatic cells [138-141]. The predictions of a detailed model for the cell cycle in yeast were successfully compared with observations of more than a hundred mutants [142]. Other theoretical studies focus on the dynamical properties of particular modules of the cell cycle machinery such as that controlhng the Gl/S transition [143]. 

The fabrication of active semiconductor devices from amorphous semiconductor films is a further application that offers considerable advantages. Thin-fihn transistors, based on amorphous films of hydrogenated silicon, are nnder intensive development. Other devices with monostable and bistable switching characteristics have also received considerable interest. Naturally enough, the performance of snch devices is intimately related to the transport properties of charge carriers in the materials employed. 

Remark. Instability and bistability are defined as properties of the macroscopic equation. The effect of the fluctuations is merely to make the system decide to go to one or the other macroscopically stable point. Similarly the Taylor instability and the Benard cells are consequences of the macroscopic hydrodynamic equations. ) Fluctuations merely make the choice between different, equally possible macrostates, and, in these examples, determine the location of the vortices or of the cells in space. (In practice they are often overruled by extraneous influences, such as the presence of a boundary.) Statements that fluctuations shift or destroy the bistability are obscure, because on the mesoscopic level there is no sharp separation between stable and unstable systems. Some authors call a mesostate (i.e., a probability distribution P) bistable when P has two maxima, however flat. This does not correspond to any observable fact, however, unless the maxima are well-separated peaks, which can each be related to separate macrostates, as in (1.1). 

Of much interest are the electroluminescence properties of conjugated polymers that allow the development of electrically switched light-emitting devices [8.257]. Electric field activated bistable molecules are expected to switch at a critical field strength [8.258]. 

In solid state all the 10 pyroelectric crystal groups allow in principle for bistable switching behaviour. This is the proper ferroelectricity. Under certain conditions ferroelectricity (improper) can be realized in liquid crystals. This was shown by Meyer and coworkers115 in 1975. Since that time intense activities have been initiated, applying this property for flat-panel devices, switches, light modulators etc. In principle, three effects can be observed and used ... 

Such controlled motion might become even more important, if one realizes that a bistable, controllable rotaxane might be useful as a nanoscale electronic device. One state would then be the "0", the other would represent the 1" state of one bit of a computer memory. Even if we have a long way to go before using these molecules as reliable functional units in electrical circuits minimized to nanometer dimensions, it seems to be of great promise and such promise demands the intense study of ways to synthesize these molecules and the detailed examination of their properties. 

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