The audio frequency dielectric response of the liquid crystal CE8 in chiral and racemic forms.

Ferroelectric liquid crystals are currently of particular interest due to electro-optic effects which make their use in optical displays appear promising. In this study we have characterized the dielectric response of ferroelectric and nonferroelectric forms of the commercially available liquid crystal CE8, with the aim of better understanding the polarization reversal in the ferroelectric phase, which determines the performance of the electro-optic devices. The real and imaginary parts of the dielectric function of racemic and chiral CE8 were measured between 30 Hz and 13 MHz at temperatures between 51 and 162C. Low (1 KHz) and high (10(5) Hz) frequency dielectric constants reflect changes in structure of the liquid crystal phases and differences in behavior of the two forms.