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Updated: Sep 29, 2026

Measuring Magnetically-Tuned Ferroelectric Polarization in Liquid Crystals
Published on: August 15, 2018
Electric-field-induced motion of polymer cholesteric liquid-crystal flakes in a moderately conductive fluid
Tanya Z Kosc1, Kenneth L Marshall, Stephen D Jacobs
1University of Rochester, New York 14623-1299, USA. tkos@lle.rochester.edu
Abstract:
Polymer cholesteric liquid-crystal flakes suspended in a fluid with nonnegligible conductivity can exhibit motion in the presence of an ac electric field. The plateletlike particles with a Grandjean texture initially lie parallel to the cell substrates and exhibit a strong selective reflection that is diminished or extinguished as the flakes move. Flake motion was seen within a specific frequency bandwidth in an electric field as low as 5 mV(rms)/microm. Flakes reoriented about their longest axis to align parallel to theapplied field, and a rise time of 560 ms was seen in a 40-mV(rms)/microm field at 100 Hz.
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