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Preparation of Liquid Crystal Networks for Macroscopic Oscillatory Motion Induced by Light
Published on: September 20, 2017
Effect of anisotropic lattice deformation on the Kerr coefficient of polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystals
Hiroki Tone1, Hiroyuki Yoshida, Shuhei Yabu1
1Graduate School of Electrical, Electronic and Information Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita, Osaka 565-0871, Japan.
Abstract:
We investigate the effect of anisotropic lattice deformation on the Kerr coefficient of polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystals (PSBP-LCs). PSBPs with orthorhombic and tetragonal symmetry were prepared by polymer-stabilizing a blue-phase liquid crystal under electrostriction. Both orthorhombic and tetragonal PSBPs showed smaller Kerr coefficients than the cubic PSBP, despite an increase in the unit cell volume caused by the elongation of the lattice along the direction of light propagation. Our results indicate that the Kerr coefficient of PSBPs is not determined simply by the volume of the unit lattice but by the lattice size perpendicular to the direction of light propagation.
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