Session Index

Blue phase (BP) liquid crystals (LC) are soft 3D photonic crystals with extraordinary tunability, electro-optic properties, as well as optical nonlinearities. While most techniques can only fabricate 3D photonic crystals that work in the infrared–microwave regime, the bandgaps of BPLCs are inherently located in the ultraviolet–visible–near infrared regime.

 

We investigate the optical and phase behaviors of a binary rod-like/bent-core liquid crystal cell doped with a photoisomerizable azobenzene chiral dye. It is evidenced by means of dielectric spectroscopy that the cell at a given temperature can be switched from blue phase to isotropic phase by irradiating with ultraviolet light.

 

We develop a Smectic-A liquid crystal-based smart window with the homeotropic (H) as the light-transparent state and the focal conic (FC) as the light-scattering state. Switching from H to FC and from FC to H can respectively be achieved by electric-field application and thermal variation to induce smectic layer reorientation.

 

Sol-gel metal-oxide material IZO device with low temperature near-infrared laser annealing was demonstrated on both glass and plastic substrates. The IZO film can be used to detect the change of humidity and to serve as a sensitive carbon monoxide sensor. Effects of laser power and metal-oxide network were also investigated.

 

We demonstrate an electro-thermal approach that can generate uniform lying helix (ULH) at ambient temperature by applying a designated connecting voltage pulse to a cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) cell. This technique is applicable to CLCs with positive dielectric anisotropy and the ULH is switchable to other CLC textures.

 

Previously we discovered the pseudo-dielectric heating effect. We focus on how cell parameters influence the heating behavior induced by the pseudo-dielectric relaxation. It suggest that both cell gap and electrode area govern voltage conditions for the induction of the heating and the resistivity of the electrode predominates the heating strength.