Polarized light emission of liquid crystalline polymer blends

Abstract

Fluorene-based light emitting polymer blends with liquid crystalline characteristics were studied on effective energy transfer and dichroic characteristics. Incorporating 0.5 wt% of the non-liquid crystalline into the liquid crystalline polymer suppressed the PL emission at 420 nm on photoexcitation at 360 nm, but generated a new PL emission of the non-liquid crystalline polymer at 480 nm. The highest PL intensity at 480 nm, which was 13 times stronger than those of the two polymers before blending, was observed for a blend with 2.0 wt% of the non-liquid crystalline polymer. When the molecules of the blends were aligned on a rubbed polyimide surface by a heating-cooling process, the dichroic ratio and the order parameter were 2.0 and 0.25, respectively. Time-correlated single photon counting(TCSPC) study revealed that the time required for energy transfer between the two chromophores was shortened by 93 ps when the blends were aligned on the rubbed polyimide surface by the heating-cooling process. The thermal treatment also enhanced the energy transfer efficiency by 9%.