Anisotropic light absorption, refractive indices, and orientational order parameter of unidirectionally aligned columnar liquid crystal films.

The anisotropic optical properties of thermotropic columnar liquid crystals absorbing in the visible range are investigated for different discotic compounds unidirectionally oriented in open supported thin films. Two methods to monitor the alignment of columnar mesophases in thin films are reported, making possible to achieve either homeotropic anchoring (columns normal to the substrate) by a specific thermal annealing, or unidirectional planar orientation (columns parallel to the substrate) by using a rubbed Teflon coating. The columnar liquid crystal anchoring is found to depend on the nature of the compound, either parallel or perpendicular to the Teflon orientation. Based on this control of the mesophase alignment, the dichroic ratio and the orientational order parameter of oriented samples are measured, and a high order parameter of 0.9 is found in the case of parallel alignment. From the polarized absorption data of the columnar liquid crystal films, the light wavelength dependence of the birefringence and of the real and imaginary parts (refractive index and extinction coefficient, respectively) of the anisotropic optical indices are determined over the whole visible range.