Dichroic-dye-doped polymer stabilized optically isotropic chiral liquid crystals

Abstract

A polarization-independent electro-optical material based on dichroic-dye-doped polymer stabilized optically isotropic chiral liquid crystals is prepared. The isotropic phase of the material can be well maintained even though the temperature is below 0 °C. The electro-optical performances of the material are explored, and the results show large Kerr constant (K ∼ 10 nm V⁻²), fast response time (only hundreds of microseconds), and large contrast ratio (nearly 9.0). It can be estimated that the power consumption and the cost of the devices based on this material can be decreased substantially, due to the alignment-free and polarizer-free characteristics. Therefore, this material will be a good candidate in the next-generation low power consumption displays and other photonic devices.