Manipulating the reflection color of cholesteric liquid crystals has potential utility in optics, photonics, and displays. We report here on red-shifting tuning of the reflection notch of a polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal upon application of a DC field. The utilization of chiral liquid crystal monomers in the fabrication of the polymer network is shown to be the key enabler to this observation. The pre-polymer syrup consisted of a chiral dopant R1011, a negative dielectric nematic LC ZLI-2079, a LC chiral diacrylate and a UV photoinitiator. To understand the role of polymer network chirality to enabling the large range color tuning, PSCLCs were prepared with various ratio of LC achiral vs. LC chiral monomers. Large red tuning behaviors are reported by chiral monomer content in the polymer network, as can be seen in Figure 1. Sample preparation methods to reduce scatter will also be discussed.

Large reflection notch tuning of cholesteric liquid crystals stabilized by chiral liquid crystal polymers

245th National Meeting (2013)

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