A novel photochromic liquid crystal comprising a diarylethene compound having both photochromic properties and liquid crystallinity. This compound is a photochromic diarylethene compound having a mesogen group in each of the two aryl groups. The photochromic liquid crystal provides a large change in birefringence by photoisomerization or phase transition, and has high durability against repeated changes in birefringence. A side-chain polymer liquid crystal containing the above photochromic liquid crystal is useful as an optical recording material. Such an optical recording material is capable of performing light modulation by irradiation with light near Tc thereof, and is applicable to photo operator devices, optical memories, and the like. Further, the optical recording material is useful as a material for a recording layer of an optical recording medium such as an optical disk or an optical memory card.
一种新型光致变色液晶,包括具有光致变色性和液晶性质的二芳基
乙烯化合物。该化合物是一种光致变色的二芳基
乙烯化合物,每个芳基中均具有一种介质基团。光致变色液晶通过光异构化或相变提供了大的双折射变化,并且对于双折射的反复变化具有高耐久性。含有上述光致变色液晶的侧链聚合物液晶可用作光记录材料。这样的光记录材料能够通过接近其Tc的光辐射进行光调制,并适用于光操作器件、光记忆等。此外,该光记录材料可用作光盘或光存储卡等光记录介质的记录层材料。