Time-resolved FTIR spectroscopy on structure and mobility of single crystal ferroelectric liquid crystalline elastomers

Time-resolved polarized Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy on thin microtomized sections of single-crystal ferroelectric liquid crystalline elastomers (SC-FLCE) is employed to analyze its structure and mobility in response to an external electric field. Due to its specificity, FTIR spectroscopy enables to determine the orientation, the order parameter, and the extension and time scale of the motion for different molecular moieties. It is shown that under the influence of an external electric field the mesogenic units perform a motion on the tilt cone which is hindered by the elastomeric network. Although the different molecular moieties have a widely varying excursion of their motion, their response to the external electric field takes place simultaneously on a time scale of about 10 ms.