ELECTRO-OPTICAL RESPONSE OF POLYMER DISPERSED NEMATIC WITH AXIAL-BIPOLAR DIRECTOR CONFIGURATION

The results of the study of the electro-optical response of polymer dispersed liquid crystal films in which the polymer sets conical boundary conditions are presented. It is shown that such films have a high light transmittance T, low control electrical fields and large values of the contrast ratio

Electro-optical response of PDLC films with conical boundary conditions

Polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC) are the liquid crystal (LC) droplets dispersed in polymer matrix. Optical properties of such composite materials depend on the orientational structure inside droplets which, in turn, depends on the boundary conditions at LC-polymer interface. For instance, the bipolar director configuration with two point defects at the opposite droplet's poles is formed within droplets at tangential surface anchoring. An electric field applied to this PDLC film causes the transformation of orientational structure and reorientation of bipolar droplet axis along the field. In the result, PDLC film can be switched from a ight-scattering state to transparent one