High figure-of-merit nematic mixtures based on totally unsaturated isothiocyanate liquid crystals

High birefringence and low viscosity isothiocyanate liquid crystal single compounds, and eutectic mixtures based solely on unsaturated rigid core structures, are reported. Extraordinarily high values of figure-of-merit were observed at room temperature for the formulated nematic mixtures. Potential applications of such mixtures for laser beam steering at lambda = 1.55 mu m using optical phased arrays are emphasized.