https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2004-10058-4
Polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals as switchable photonic broad bandgaps
Centre d’Elaboration de Matériaux et d’Etudes Structurales, CEMES-CNRS, 29 rue Jeanne-Marvig, BP 94347, F-31055, Toulouse cedex 4, France
* e-mail: mitov@cemes.fr
Received:
13
July
2004
Accepted:
13
October
2004
Published online:
7
December
2004
A cholesteric liquid crystal can be considered as a one-dimensional photonic crystal with a refractive index that is regularly modulated along the helix axis because of the particular arrangement of the molecules. The result is that the propagation of light is suppressed for a particular range of wavelengths (bandgap). A polymer-stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal (PSCLC), which is obtained by in situ photopolymerization of reactive liquid-crystal molecules in the presence of non-reactive liquid-crystal molecules in an oriented Bragg planar texture, is elaborated by combining the UV-curing with a thermally induced pitch variation. As a consequence, it is shown here that memory effects are introduced into the characteristics of the reflection band of the material at room temperature. In the visible spectrum, the reflection bandwidth can be tuned in agreement with the thermal ramp and broadened. In addition, the bandgap filters can be switched between broadband reflective, scattering and transparent states by subjecting them to an electric field. Related application fields of these functional materials are switchable smart windows for the control of the solar-light spectrum and white-or-black polarizer-free reflective displays.
PACS: 78.20.-e Optical properties of bulk materials and thin films – / 42.70.Df Liquid crystals – / 61.30.Pq Microconfined liquid crystals: droplets, cylinders, randomly confined liquid crystals, polymer dispersed liquid crystals, and porous systems –
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag, 2005