We developed a composite system to produce robust bistable smectic-A ͑SmA͒ liquid crystal based flexible displays by encapsulating the liquid crystal material in a polymer wall structure. While keeping all the intrinsic bistable properties of the SmA material, the field-induced polymer walls bridge the two display substrates and bring significant advantages over the polymer dispersed liquid crystal structure. Here we analyze the performance of an encapsulated pixel and demonstrate superior electro-optical characteristics, high contrast ratio, and excellent sunlight readability.

We have obtained a polymer wall-stabilized smectic A liquid crystal to be used for bistable flexible displays. The polymer wall structure optimally connects the two substrates together, thus providing maximum flexibility as compared to the polymer dispersed liquid crystal. Moreover, all the intrinsic bistable properties of the smectic A material are preserved. We analyzed the pixel performance and demonstrated very good electro-optical characteristics, high contrast ratio, and excellent stability of the states. The polymer wall-stabilized smectic A on flexible substrates has high potential to be used as electronic paper.

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The transition from surface to bulk normal dielectric rolls in a nematic liquid crystal is imaged by fluorescence confocal polarizing microscopy. The three-dimensional director structure and the liquid flow are scanned in both the layer plane and the transverse plane. Two systems of small-scale convective flow are formed, one at each electrode. Strong anchoring makes director oscillations difficult and charges accumulate by the Carr-Helfrich mechanism. The middle region is a structureless convection where the director oscillates with the frequency of the applied voltage. The small-scale flow eventually fills the cell from one electrode to the other as one system of thin and elongated rolls. The true dielectric mode is not a director pattern, rather a surface flow instability.

In this work, we have studied the effects from increasing the strength of the applied electric field on the charge transport of hydrogenated graphitic fibers. Resistivity measurements were carried out for direct currents in the nA -mA range and for temperatures from 1.9 K to 300 K. The high-temperature non-ohmic voltage-current dependence is well described by the nonlinear random resistor network model applied to systems that are disordered at all scales. The temperature-dependent resistivity shows linear, step-like transitions from insulating to metallic states as well as plateau features. As more current is being sourced, the fiber becomes more conductive and thus the current density goes up. The most interesting features is observed in high electric fields. As the fiber is cooled, the resistivity first decreases linearly with the temperature and then enters a plateau region at a temperature T ∼ 260 − 280 K that is field-independent. These observations on a system made out of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and oxygen atoms suggest possible electric-field induced superconductivity with a high critical temperature that was predicted from studying the role of chirality on the origin of life [1].