Guest-host storage effects

On the other hand, liquid crystalline polymers applied to optical information storage has attracted great attention. The liquid crystalline polymer is applied mainly in terms of the thermo-optical effect. The backbone of liquid crystalline polymer can be polysiloxane, polyacrylate, or polyesters. In order to enhance the absorption coefficient for the writing laser beam, the dyes may be either dissolved into the liquid crystalline polymer in the guest-host model or attached to the backbone of the liquid crystalline polymer to form a copolymer. The nematic, cholesteric and smectic liquid crystalline polymers are all be able to be utilized in optical information storage. 

Liquid-crystal electro-optic phenomena can be divided into two categories—those caused only by dielectric forces and those induced by the combination of dielectric and conduction forces. The two conduction-induced phenomena discussed later are dynamic scattering and the storage effect. Four of the dielectric phenomena, or field effects as they are sometimes known, are discussed first (1) induced birefringence, (2) twisted nematic effect, (3) guest-host interaction, and (4) cholesteric-nematic transition. 

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