Optical polarization states of a liquid-crystal blue phase II

Abstract

The advantages and uniqueness of blue-phase-based electro-optical devices are predicted. In this paper, we present relevant electro-optics behaviors of the transmitted and reflected lights of BPII and try to explain those phenomena through studying the polarization states of the lights. There are two stages of electro-optical behaviors seen in an in-plan-switching BPII cell. Because of the Kerr effect, the birefringence of the linear polarized light is induced and saturated 0.021 at 150 V, and the Kerr constant is ≈ 3 × 10 −10 mV −2. As the applied voltage is stronger (>200 V), the influence of the deformation of the lattice structure dominates the transmitted/reflected intensity at different wavelengths, which causes a discontinuous change in the transmitted light intensity and a huge variation in the azimuth angle (80 •) of the polarization state of the transmitted light. As a result the deformation of the lattice structure of the BPII not only induces a linear birefringence but also induces a change in optical rotatory power and then affects the polarization state of the light. These experimental results show that the electro-optical nature of the BPII cell is more complicated than the well-known BPI phase. They also show that BPII can be used not only in transflective devices, but also in field-tunable optical devices.

Effect of nanofiller concentration on its dispersion in a system of liquid crystalline SB(3R)-11 and single walled carbon nanotubes

“…Its molecular weight amounts to 643.89 g/mol. The synthesis details can be found elsewhere [11,12]. SB(3R)-11 is a ferroelectric and optically active chiral LC molecule with three ring calamitic liquid crystal (Schiff bases) comprising imine and ester linkage groups and chiral tails.…”

“…The interaction with the nonmesogenic nanospecies could provoke new electrical and thermal properties of the final nanocomposite and/or appearance of new ordered phases [10]. Recent studies involve chiral phases as well, such as SmC*, and blue phases, with a potential to be applied as highresolution micro-displays for portable devices with better resolution, fast response times, and wider view angles [11][12][13], or for adaptive optics applications [14].…”

Blue Phase Liquid Crystals with Tailored Crystal Orientation for Photonic Applications

“…where n is the average refractive index of BPs, a is the lattice constant of BPs, (hkl) is the Miller indices representing the crystal orientation, and θ is the propagation angle of light in BPs with respect to the normal direction of a Miller plane. Because of the external stimuli-responsivity of BPs, they can be easily switched and tuned by controlling temperature [6,7], by applying an electric field [7][8][9][10][11], and by illuminating light [12,13], making them applicable to various photonic applications such as displays [14], photonic crystal lasers [6,[15][16][17][18], biosensors [19,20], optical filters [21], polarization converters [22], and diffractive optics with the capability of nonmechanical beam steering [23,24]. Despite the technological potential of BPs, several issues have been raised to achieve tailored light-matter interaction for practical applications.…”

Polymer‐Stabilized Monodomain Blue Phase Diffraction Grating

“…[ 7–10 ] The polymer‐stabilized BPLC (PS‐BPLC) by in situ photopolymerization is a promising method not only for extending the BP temperature range but also for enhancing their electro‐optic performance, such as optical isotropy, [ 11 ] selective reflection, [ 12 ] less hysteresis, [ 13 ] and fast response time. [ 14 ] Despite a successful prototyping into a PS‐BPLC display, [ 4 ] the PS‐BPLC has rather shown their possibility of applying to versatile photonic applications such as a diffraction grating, [ 15 ] vortex beam generation, [ 16 ] optical filters, [ 17 ] optical resonators, [ 18 ] polarization converter, [ 19 ] photonic crystal, [ 20 ] and augmented reality/virtual reality. [ 21 ]…”