Polymer-network liquid crystals (LCs), where the response properties of a LC can be enhanced by the presence of a porous polymer network, are investigated. In the reported experiments, liquid crystals were doped with a small amount (< 10%) of photo-curable acrylate monomers. Samples with surface grafted photoinitiators, dissolvable photoinitiators, and samples with both kinds of photoinitiators were prepared. Both conventional (planar electrodes) and diffractive (interdigitated electrodes) test cells were used. These samples were exposed with a UV light source and changes of their capacitance were investigated with an LCR meter during exposure. Due to the presence of the in-situ generated polymer network, the electro-optic response properties of photo cured samples were enhanced. For example, their continuous phase modulation properties led to more localized responses in samples with interdigitated electrodes, which caused suppression of selected diffraction orders in the diffraction patterns recorded in polymer network LC samples. Moreover, capacitance changes were investigated during photopolymerization of a blue phase LC.
Exciting experimental results on the response properties of hybridized photo responsive liquid crystal test cells are reported, where iron doped lithium niobate substrates were used to photo generate electric fields and indium tin oxide coated cover glasses were used to confine these photo generated fields in a liquid crystal layer. Samples were investigated in a modified inverted optical polarizing microscope with white probe light (crossed polarizers) and exposed with a Gaussian laser beam focused to a small spot (14 μm FWHM). Test cells filled with nematic LC showed homeotropic director alignment. Upon exposure, this alignment was maintained at the exposure spot center and the LC director was selectively realigned in a surrounding single ring. This ring had a thickness of a few microns and its diameter increased with increasing exposure intensity (112 μm at 0.7 mW, 204 μm at 1.1 mW). This characteristic director realignment was traced back to the optically generated electric field distributions by simulations. In samples filled with chiral nematic LC, uniformly standing helix alignment was found. Textural transitions were induced at the focus position, which again led to the formation of well-defined circular defects. We could show that these defects can be permanently stored within the chiral nematic LC. Polarized optical microscopy of a rotated sample revealed that a point like defect with +1 topological charge was enclosed in each of these defects. Photovoltaic fields generated in small lithium niobate particles dispersed in a LC were found to cause promising optical responses and particle movement.
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