Theoretical modeling of heterogeneous liquid crystal systems: nano-suspensions and polymer-stabilized LC lens

Reshetnyak, Victor Yu, Shelestiuk, Sergii M., Subota, Svitlana L., Pavliuchenko, Svitlana and Sluckin, Timothy J. (2007) Theoretical modeling of heterogeneous liquid crystal systems: nano-suspensions and polymer-stabilized LC lens. Glogarova, Milada, Palffy-Muhoray, Peter and Copic, Martin (eds.) In Liquid Crystals and Applications in Optics. vol. 6587, SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering. pp. 658709-658720 . (doi:10.1117/12.722687).

Abstract

Heterogeneous liquid crystal (LC) systems are a new class of anisotropic materials which have been intensively studied over the last decade. This article is concerned with two such systems: ferroelectric LC nano-suspensions and LCs with polymer network. The significant implication of ferroelectric LC-colloids is the possibility of a significant reduction in the threshold electric Fredericksz voltage. Here we present a theory of this phenomenon, which agrees qualitatively with experiment. A second example of heterogeneous LC systems is a gradient-polymer-stabilized LC (G-PSLC) structure, which has been proposed for a tunable-focus lens application. We report on theoretical model that describes the dependence of the G-PSLC lens focal length on applied voltage. A previous model is improved by considering light absorption during the polymerization. Again we find qualitative agreement with the experimental data.

This record has no associated files available for download.

Contributors

Author: Timothy J. Sluckin

Download statistics