Liquid Crystalline Semiconductors: Materials, properties and applications Book

This book describes recent progress in the use of liquid crystals (LCs) as active components in electronic and photonic organic devices, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), organic field effect transistors (OFETS), thin film transistors (TFTs) and photovoltaic cells (PVs).

Such devices on plastic substrates represent a major component of the plastic electronics revolution. The self-assembling properties and supramolecular structures of liquid crystals can be made use of in order to improve the performance of such devices. The relationships between chemical structure, liquid crystalline behaviour and other physical properties, such as charge-transport, photoluminescence and electroluminescence are discussed and explained.

The anisotropic transport and high carrier mobilities of columnar liquid crystals make them promising candidates for photovoltaics and transistors. The issues in the design and processing of liquid crystalline semiconductors for such devices with improved performance are described. The photonic properties of chiral liquid crystals and their use as mirror-less lasers are also discussed.

Featuring contributions from an international team of leading researchers, the book will be a valuable reference for academics working in chemistry, physics, electronic and chemical engineering, and to industrial researchers in display technology, plastic electronics and related areas.