A pyroelectric liquid crystal polymer (PLCP) for second-harmonic generation

In order for a material to show a non-vanishing second order non-linear susceptibility, the material has to have a polar axis. This is hard to achieve in a liquid crystal system because of the strong quadrupolar order along the director. Electrostatic poling of polymers and polymer liquid crystals at high temperature and subsequent quenching to lower temperature only gives a small value of the polar order parameter and, in addition, results in materials which are not in thermodynamic equilibrium and therefore not stable over long times. Starting with a ferroelectric liquid crystal (which has polar order perpendicular to the director) we have succeeded in making a material with true polar order. It is not ferroelectric, although the ferroelectric properties of the starting and intermediate materials are basic for the procedure and for the final product which can be used for frequency doubling, of importance, for instance, in a wide area of optic communication applications.