Liquid Crystal-Solid Interface Structure at the Antiferroelectric-Ferroelectric Phase Transition

Total Internal Reflection (TIR) is used to probe the molecular organization at the surface of a tilted chiral smectic liquid crystal at temperatures in the vicinity of the bulk antiferroelectric-ferroelectric phase transition. Data are interpreted using an exact analytical solution of a real model for ferroelectric order at the surface. In the mixture T3, ferroelectric surface order is expelled with the bulk ferroelectric-antiferroelectric transition. The conditions for ferroelectric order at the surface of an antiferroelectric bulk are presented

Chirality Detection Using Nematic Liquid Crystal Droplets on Anisotropic Surfaces

Nematic liquid crystals (NLCs) form helical macroscopic structures through chiral induction when doped with chiral species. We describe a very simple, though highly sensitive method for determination of handedness and pitch of the induced twist in the case of very weak twisting powers of such chiral dopants. A tiny drop typically less than 10 nL-of the chiral doped NLC is placed on a plate promoting a uniform planar surface anchoring of the liquid crystal director. At the curved NLC air interface the anchoring is homeotropic and in the sessile droplets we get a locally twisted hybrid director structure with a disclination line extending across the droplet. The configuration of the disclination line (S-like or backwards S-like) reveals the sign of twisting power and extremely large pitch values in the range of 10 mm can easily be measured. We demonstrate the method using the standard NLC 4-cyano-4'-pentylbiphenyl (5CB), weakly doped with the chiral material 2-hydroxy-2-phenylacetic acid (mandelic acid)

An Autosteresoscopic 3D Display System Based on Prism Patterned Projection Screen

Using a 2-view Autostereoscopic 3D Projection display system, a radically designed projection screen film system coupled with a conventional projection display is herein presented and shown to produce a superior 3D effect than most current autostereoscopic and non-autostereo 3D display systems