Optomechanical properties of stretched polymer dispersed liquid crystal films for scattering polarizer applications

Abstract

A scattering polarizer is created by subjecting a polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) film to tensile strain. The optomechanical properties of the film are investigated by simultaneously measuring the stress-strain and polarization dependent optical transmission characteristics. The correlation between transmittances of two orthogonal polarizations and the stress-strain curve reveals that the polymer orientation as well as the droplet shape anisotropy influences the liquid crystal alignment within the droplets. A Monte-Carlo simulation based on the Lebwohl-Lasher model is used to explain the subtle influence of polymer orientation on liquid crystal alignment.

Tunable topographical cellulose matrices for electro-optical liquid crystal cells

“…It is also known that polymer chains align during the PDLC film stretching process and this promotes subtle changes in the liquid crystal alignment in the droplets as a result of the polymer alignment induced by the tensile strain [23]. Uniaxially stretched anisotropic phase separated polymer films were recently obtained from APC and their optical [24] and mechanical properties [25] have been studied.…”

The controllable intensity and polarization degree of random laser from sheared dye-doped polymer-dispersed liquid crystal

“…As the shear distance increases, the intensity of the random laser decreases and the threshold increases from 2.0 mJ/pulse to 4.0 mJ/pulse, obviously. Such behavior is associated with orientation of the liquid crystal molecules caused by alignment direction of polymer chain and anisotropy of droplet shape in the sheared DDPDLC [24].…”

Confinement-Induced Transition of Topological Defects in Smectic Liquid Crystals: From a Point to a Line and Pearls

“…For example, size-dependent changes in LC ordering have been clearly observed in LC droplets [8,9]. In polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) research, how the shape of LC droplets dispersed in a polymer matrix affects the electro-optic properties has been studied [10][11][12]. Many other geometries with controlled surface polarities have been studied as confinements [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

“…We choose a prolate spheroid in which three radii, a, b, and c, have a > b ¼ c, because it has a continuously varying curvature and we can control its shape by the unidirectional stretching of a spherical droplet [10,24,25]. This simple but nontrivial geometry can be considered as a type of intermediate geometry between a sphere (a ¼ b ¼ c) and a cylinder (a ¼ 1, b ¼ c).…”