Polarization characteristics of single-crystalline dichroic azo dye grown in nematic-phase liquid crystal

In this paper, we demonstrated the formation of single-crystalline dichroic dye which is grown in the nematic-phase liquid crystal as the solvent for molecular ordering control of dichroic dye molecules. The deposited microcrystals in parallel-aligned liquid crystal exhibited needle-like morphology and extinction position along the alignment direction of liquid crystal. We confirmed the deposited microcrystals were composed of only dichroic dye molecules. Structural evaluation by synchrotron X-ray diffraction indicated that dichroic dye molecules have a tilted angle on the substrate. We discuss the relation between the oriented structure of azo-based dichroic dye and their optical polarization characteristics for coatable polarizers utilizing crystalline-phase.