title: Synchronized optical and electrical characterization of discotic liquid crystals thin films.
abstract: We describe a setup suitable for simultaneously measuring optical and electrical properties of a liquid crystal mesophase upon temperature variation, and the difference in the order parameters between the bulk and the interface with the substrate. It integrates high-resolution polarized light optical microscopy, temperature regulation, and electrical measurements in a controlled atmosphere with a software kernel that controls the instruments and synchronizes the data streams. A user-friendly interface allows us to program multistep experiments controlling all the instruments and data acquisition by a specifically designed scheduler. We tested our system on a thin film of alkoxy-substituted phthalocyanines deposited on a test pattern with interdigitated electrodes. We studied the optical and electrical behavior in the proximity of the bulk phase transition to isotropic liquid, identifying a few ordered monolayers anchored to the substrate above the transition temperature.
authors.affiliation: CNR-Institute for the Study of Nanostructured Materials, Via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calò
authors.forename: Pablo
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Stoliar
authors.forename: Massimiliano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cavallini
authors.forename: Yves H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Geerts
authors.forename: Fabio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Biscarini