Dynamic control of colorful reflection toward practical cholesteric liquid crystal displays

We investigated the possibility of practical applications using cholesteric liquid crystals (ChLCs) with Helfrich deformation, which causes the undulation of the helical structure. Usually, the Helfrich deformation is very unstable and can be obtained only in the transient state for a short time (< 10 s) under continuous field application. Here, we found that a ChLC polymerized with spatial pattern distribution exhibited high durability of the Helfrich deformation. Furthermore, we revealed molecular alignment of the Helfrich deformation by scanning electron microscope. Finally, we fabricated a switching device embedded with color-tunable reflection pixels to exhibit potential of reflective display application.