Polarisation‐independent liquid crystal devices

Liquid crystal (LC) devices can be used as amplitude modulators and phase modulators. Most LC devices are polarisation‐dependent and require at least one polariser. As a result, the optical efficiency is greatly reduced. In this paper, we review some of our recently developed polarisation‐independent LC devices. For amplitude modulation, we report two polariser‐free devices which combine light scattering with dye absorption: dye‐doped polymer‐dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) and dye‐doped LC gels. For phase modulation, we also present two examples: residual phase type, e.g., voltage‐biased PDLC, Polymer‐Stabilised Cholesteric Texture (PSCT), and homeotropic LC gels; and double‐layered structure, such as thin polymer film‐separated orthogonal LC layers, and double‐layered LC gels. Potential applications of these polarisation‐independent LC devices for displays, laser beam steering and adaptive optics are emphasised.     

Effect of Particle Size on Electro-Optic Properties of Liquid Crystal Devices Doped with γ-Cyclodextrin Stabilized Barium Titanate Nanoparticles

Barium titanate stabilized by γ-cyclodextrin nanoparticles were prepared by using a microwave reactor equipped with ultrasonic nozzle mixing at 240°C in a tetraethylene glycol solution of barium ethoxide and titanium ethoxide in the presence of γ-cyclodextrin. Particles in γ-cyclodextrin-stabilized BaTiO₃ nanoparticles had an average diameter of 2.1 nm and mainly distributed within the range of about 1 to 4 nm. The γ-cyclodextrin-stabilized BaTiO₃ nanoparticles were mixed with 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl at room temperature resulting in a liquid crystal sol of 4-cyano-4′-pentylbiphenyl. The response time of liquid crystal devices in the presence of γ-cyclodextrin-stabilized BaTiO₃ nanoparticles was faster than that in the absence.     

Liquid Crystals Nanocomposites for Photovoltaic Applications: Structural Properties

Nanocomposites consisting of liquid crystals and nanoparticles have been studied for their applications in devices, such as photovoltaics and to model biological devices. Understanding the structure the liquid crystal assumes in the vicinity of the nanoparticles, and how it compares to the bulk structure of the liquid crystals gives us an idea of how light, and electrons are transmitted from the liquid crystal to the nanoparticle and how sharp is this transmission. The structure depends on the functionalization (or lack of it) that the nanoparticle has and seems to reflect the faceting or the arrangement of the nanoparticle.     

制作压电器件氧化锌单晶的评述

氧化锌材料制作压电器件已经有很长的研究历史,自从Robert F.Service在1997年报道氧化锌可以在短波长范围实现蓝光输出后,氧化锌单晶在质量和体积方面取得了很大的研究进展。通过对比分析20世纪60年代以来氧化锌单晶压电特性的研究结果,指出迄今为止制作压电器件的氧化锌单晶仍然需要继续优化。     

Non-display bio-optic applications of liquid crystals

Liquid crystal (LC) devices have been largely developed for LC displays and in the last decade for optical telecommunications; however, their application in the field of optical imaging is just starting to emerge. They can be miniaturised and thus have a great potential to be used with miniature optical imaging systems for biomedical applications. LC devices specifically designed for integration into biomedical optical imaging systems are reviewed. Using a combination of a few LC retarders, spectropolarimetric imaging of tissue can be obtained. LC tunable filters with high dynamic range and large throughput are designed for hyperspectral imaging and for spectral domain optical coherence tomography. The designs are based on several concepts, both using the classical stack of retarders and using more modern designs based on single layer in a Fabry–Perot cavity, in a resonant waveguide structure or in a photonic crystal.     

Behaviour of Nematic Liquid Crystals in Inhomogeneous Electric Fields

The behaviour of homogeneously aligned nematic liquid crystal layers in inhomogeneous electric fields has been theoretically and experimentally investigated. The variation of the phase retardation of monochromatic light along nematic liquid crystal layer at the edges of a cell electrode has been obtained. Anisotropic character of the resolution of liquid crystal devices is shown.     

Characterization of lead(II)chloride single crystals grown in silica gel

Acousto‐optical materials play an important role in acousto‐optic devices as acousto‐optic modulators. Lead(II) chloride is an acousto‐optical material, having high figure of merit approximately ten times greater than that of lead molybdate, which is an efficient acousto‐optical material. It also possesses high birefringence, low attenuation coefficient, wide transparency range and good mechanical properties. This paper discusses in detail, the growth of single crystals of lead(II) chloride in silica gel by the process of diffusion in a highly acidic medium. Needle‐type lead(II) chloride crystals have been obtained. The crystal system is confirmed to be orthorhombic by powder X‐ray diffraction analysis. To study the optical transparency of the grown crystal, the transmission spectrum has been recorded in the range 190 – 1100 nm. Thermal stability of the crystal is also studied. Results are discussed in detail. (© 2008 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Temperature Dependence of Critical Sample Thickness for Spontaneous Cholesteric-Nematic Phase Transition Between Surfaces with Homeotropic Anchoring

Temperature dependence of the critical sample thickness at which a cholesteric structure unwinds spontaneously between surfaces with homeotropic anchoring are presented for some dielectrically negative chiral nematic mixtures. The results obtained are pertinent to the application of the nematic-cholesteric phase change-effect in liquid crystal devices.     

Liquid crystal acoustics: A modern view of the problem

The main results of investigations in the fields of modern liquid crystal acoustics that originate from and continue the pioneering works of Prof. A.P. Kapustin are systematized and generalized. The following aspects of the problem are considered: acoustooptic phenomena, acoustoelectric interactions, acoustically induced domains, and effects of acoustical memory in liquid crystals. Acoustic devices based on liquid crystals are reviewed.     

Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

A review of the ferroelectricity in liquid crystals is given, beginning with a discussion of the symmetry properties allowing a macroscopic polarization in some of the more ordered liquid crystal phases. The fundamental mechanisms behind the dipolar ordering are discussed in some detail. The two linear electric effects, ferro- and flexo-electricity, give rise to completely different phenomena. In the smectic C phase there is one ferroelectric coefficient and nine flexoelectric ones, giving independent contributions to the polarization of the medium. We further discuss helical and non-helical structures, doped and intrinsic infinite-pitch ferroelectrics and, finally, the rich potential of liquid crystal ferroelectrics aligned in the »book-shelfgeometry» for fast electro-optic devices.     

Design of Optical Directional Couplers Made of Polydimethysiloxane Liquid Crystal Channel Waveguides

We present numerical simulations of a directional coupler based on three-dimensional waveguides made of a nematic liquid crystal, acting as the waveguide core, infiltrated in polydimethysiloxane channels. Modeling is based on the combination of minimization of Oseen-Frank energy of the liquid crystal molecules with a beam propagation algorithm. Design of the coupler waveguides is optimized to minimize coupling lengths and maximise efficiencies. Such components can be made at low cost on flexible plastic substrates and can be also integrated with optofluidic devices for biomedical applications.     

Liquid Crystal Television

The application of liquid crystal to display devices was first proposed by Heilmeier et al. in 1968, and a liquid crystal television (LC-TV) addressed by electron beam was made as a trial in the same year. Since then, it has taken about 15 years for practical LC-TVs to be developed. Full-color, higher resolution and greater pixel number have been attained, and presently, at least for small size LC-TVs, image quality has become very close to that of CRTs.     

Studying the Electrically Driven Switching of the Planar Light Guide

Liquid crystalline materials can be used as an active media for the new generation of planar light guides. The main characteristics which governs light-guiding and switching abilities of such devices are the spatial distributions of the refraction indices (defined via the distribution of nematic director) for the liquid crystal confined within a light-guiding pore. We aim to obtain these distributions from the molecular dynamics simulation of the liquid crystalline cell with the homeotropic boundary conditions being applied. We discuss the reorientation kinetics of the homeotropic-planar transition and obtain the equilibrium director profile upon application of the planar reorienting field.     

Liquid Crystal Compounds Incorporating the Trans-1,4-Substituted Cyclohexane Ring System

A number of esters and other compounds containing a trans-1,4-substituted cyclohexane ring system-have been prepared, and the liquid crystal thermal stabilities of these new mesogens are discussed in relation to those of their analogues containing the 1,4-phenylene ring. The observed effects are discussed in terms of a possible thermal energy absorption by the cyclohexane ring in causing minor conformational changes.

Other physical properties of these new mesogens are also discussed with particular reference to their potential in applications. In relation to electro-optical display devices, such properties as birefringence, dielectric anistropy, viscosity etc., are important parameters, and the new materials have been assessed in this context as possible additives to the 4-n-alkyl- and 4-n-alkyloxy-4′-cyanobiphenyls for producing a favorable combination of physical parameters.

Also reported is a liquid crystal mixture which has a 100°C nematic range and which contains only materials which are aliphatic. This mixture is assessed for its potential application as an anistropic solvent in analytical techniques such as ultra-violet spectroscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy.     

Fredericks Transition in Pure and Nanodoped Surface Stabilized Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals

Recently, ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) doped with nanoparticles have attracted a wide interest not only from a scientific but also from a practical point of view and there is continuously growing interest in the effects caused by doping the ferroelectric nanoparticles. Furthermore, the presence of external fields exhibits a very interesting transition, reported by recent experiments. In this work, we investigate the response of a surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal (SSFLC) doped with ferroelectric nanoparticles to an applied electric field. We assume that the smectic layers consist of uniform planes with a fixed orientation and the system is free from dislocation of constant layer thickness due to nanoparticles. We obtain the threshold field of orientational transition and the maximum deviation of the polarization vectors for a pure and a doped SSFLC medium. Then, we discuss the Fredericks transtion of the system and formation of inhomogeneous texture. It is found that the ferroelectric nanoparticles have significant influences in ordering behavior of a SSFLC medium and the threshold fields are critically changed by doping nanoparticles in the SSFLC, which is fundamental to operation of many liquid crystal devices.     

Ⅲ-Ⅵ族InSe半导体晶体生长研究进展

Ⅲ-Ⅶ族InSe晶体是一种非常重要的化合物半导体材料,在高性能纳米电子器件、红外光探测、光电器件及柔性电子等领域有广泛应用。本文简要介绍了In-Se相图的发展历程,InSe具有非一致熔融特性,可通过包晶反应从准化学计量比或非化学计量比溶液中析晶获得,其中In/Se摩尔比对InSe转化率有重要影响。迄今,垂直布里奇曼法、提拉法、水平梯度凝固法、低温液相法及气相输运法等多种技术被成功用于制备InSe晶体。为全面了解InSe晶体生长的历史和现状,本文从工艺原理、技术要点、晶体生长结果等方面将国内外相关工作进行了梳理,并对各种方法的优缺点进行了比较。研究分析表明垂直布里奇曼法因对设备要求简单,操作简易,现已成为制备高质量大尺寸InSe晶体的主流技术;水平梯度凝固法则在ε型InSe晶体生长方面颇具特色,未来可在新材料性能研究与应用探索上与垂直布里奇曼法形成一定补充。     

Design,synthesis and liquid crystalline behavior of ethyl 4-((4-alkoxyphenyl)diazenyl)benzoates

A series of ethyl 4-((4-alkoxyphenyl)diazenyl)benzoate is synthesized and the liquid crystalline behavior studied. Synthesized compounds are characterized by FTIR, ¹H-NMR, Mass and single crystal XRD. Differential scanning calorimetry was carried out to study the phase transitions and enthalpy changes. Polarizing optical microscopy revealed the mesogenic properties. These techniques revealed that three compounds (2a, 2b, 2f) exhibit liquid crystalline properties in the range of 80–104°C. POM exhibiting focal conical fan like texture which revealed the presence of smectic phases suggestive of their use in LCD and temperature sensing devices, besides 2c can be used as green emitter in OLEDs.     

ROLIC

Abstract

The foundation of a new company ROLIC has been recently announced, which is a spin-off from the Liquid Crystal Group of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. ROLIC will develop new liquid crystal devices, and will provide electronics manufacturers with new generations of products, as well as designing and developing new functional organic materials in prototype quantities to support device development.     

Structural,morphological, ionic conductivity,and thermal properties of pectin-based polymer electrolytes

New polymer electrolytes (PEs), potentially interesting for solid-state electrochemical devices applications, were synthesized by a solvent casting method using pectin and ionic liquid (IL) N,N,N-trimethyl-N-(2-hydroxyethyl)ammonium bis(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)imide ([N_{1 1 1 2(OH)}] [NTf₂]. The resulting electrolytes besides being moderately homogenous and thermally stable below 155°C, they also exhibited good mechanical properties. The SPE membranes were analyzed by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), and complex impedance spectroscopy.     

Advanced electro-optic properties of nematic liquid crystal doped with high birefringence liquid crystal molecules

The study of fast response nematic liquid crystal display material mixture and synthesis about compounds has always been an important subject in recent years. In this article, one type of high birefringence liquid crystal based on phenyl-diacetylenes was synthesized by sonogashira coupling reaction. A research is conducted on the effect of electro-optic properties of a widely used nematic liquid crystal mixture doped with the prepared high birefringence liquid crystal molecule which concentrations ranging from 1% to 5 wt%. While the results show that the steepness of electro-optic curves first increase and then decrease with the prepared high birefringence liquid crystal molecule content increasing, when the content of high birefringence liquid crystal molecule reaches 3%, electro-optic properties of the mixture liquid crystals are excellent.