The encapsulation of ferroelectric liquid crystal droplets in a polymer film provides a convenient method to get fast switching, flexible electro-optic light shutters. The polymer-dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystal films can be formed by photopolymerization due to a polymerization-induced phase separation. A uniform orientation of the liquid crystal is obtained by shear flow during this process. Our studies concerning the influence of the preparation parameters on the electro-optic properties show that a bistable electro-optic behavior can be achieved for high polymerization rates and low shear velocities.

We demonstrate that ferroelectric liquid crystals are suitable for application in polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) displays. The alignment of the liquid crystal can be controlled by mechanical shear during the polymerization-induced phase separation between the liquid crystal and the UV-curable adhesive which forms the polymer matrix. Helical unwinding in the smectic SmC phase and the electroclinic effect in the smectic SmA phase have been found in these samples. Both effects lead to a rotation of the optical axis in the plane perpendicular to the electric field. Switching times are of the order 100 μs.

We demonstrate that ferroelectric liquid crystals dispersed in a polymer matrix can form uniaxially aligned elliptical droplets. The alignment is controlled by mechanical shear during the polymerization of a UV‐curable adhesive. The possibility of prealignment makes polymer‐dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystals suitable for application in flexible electro‐optical displays. In contrast to surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal displays, the electro‐optical effect in our system is due to the deformed‐helix ferroelectric (DHF) effect.

The analysis of D-branes in coset models G/H provides a natural extension of recent studies on branes in WZW-theory and it has various interesting applications to physically relevant models. In this work we develop a reduction procedure that allows to construct the non-commutative gauge theories which govern the dynamics of branes in G/H. We obtain a large class of solutions and interpret the associated condensation processes geometrically. The latter are used to propose conservation laws for the dynamics of branes in coset models at large level k. In super-symmetric theories, conserved charges are argued to take their values in the representation ring of the denominator theory. Finally, we apply the general results to study boundary fixed points in two examples, namely for parafermions and minimal models.

Several nonchiral liquid crystals exhibiting nematic and smectic C phases have been doped with different chiral compounds. The handedness and the pitch of the induced helical structures were determined in both phases. Whereas some chiral dopants induce helical structures which, as to be expected, possess the same handedness in all matrices and phases, we found that in some cases the same dopant induces helical structures of opposing handedness in different nematic matrices. Moreover, it was observed that the helical sense in the chiral smectic C* phase can be opposite to the helical sense in the chiral nematic phase of the same liquid crystal system. The dependence of the helical structures on the composition was studied in several quasi‐binary diagrams.