Inorganic dopants in polymer cholesteric liquid crystals

Dynamics of polymer-dispersed cholesteric liquid crystals

We have studied the electrooptic properties of droplets of cholesteric liquid crystal dispersed in a polymer. Application of AC electric fields to the droplets leads to a conversion of the droplet from a nonreflecting to a selectively reflecting appearance. When the field is suddenly

Theory of polymer-dispersed cholesteric liquid crystals.

A mean field theory is presented to describe cholesteric phases in mixtures of a polymer and a cholesteric liquid crystal. Taking into account an anisotropic coupling between a polymer and a liquid crystal, we examine the helical pitch, twist elastic constant, and phase separations. Analytical expressions of the helical pitch of a cholesteric phase and the twist elastic constant are derived as ...

Polymer-Stabilized Diffraction Gratings from Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

Wetting of cholesteric liquid crystals.

We investigate theoretically the wetting properties of cholesteric liquid crystals at a planar substrate. If the properties of substrate and of the interface are such that the cholesteric layers are not distorted, the wetting properties are similar to those of a nematic liquid crystal. If, on the other hand, the anchoring conditions force the distortion of the liquid crystal layers the wetting ...

Hydrodynamic instabilities in active cholesteric liquid crystals.

We describe the basic properties and consequences of introducing active stresses, with principal direction along the local director, in cholesteric liquid crystals. The helical ground state is found to be linearly unstable to extensile stresses, without threshold in the limit of infinite system size, whereas contractile stresses are hydrodynamically screened by the cholesteric elasticity to giv...