Discotic liquid crystals

Abstract

This chapter summarizes the work performed by the Self-Organizing Molecular Systems centre at the University of Leeds to demonstrate the feasibility of very high-density, three-dimensional molecular 'wires' between electrical contacts on separate, closely spaced, semiconductor chips or layers. The Leeds group have investigated the use of molecular wires based on discotic liquid crystals. Organic semiconductors offer comparable levels of performance but with the increased functionalization and an ability to be used on the molecular level to allow the production of true nanoscale electronic devices. One particular system that falls into this category is that of discotic liquid crystals. Discotic liquid crystals are liquid crystals whose molecules have one molecular axis shorter than the other two and, hence, are disc-shaped. The discotic liquid crystal column therefore consists of a central column of conducting aromatic cores surrounded by insulating alkyl chains.