Hard helices can be regarded as a paradigmatic elementary model for a number of natural and synthetic soft matter systems, all featuring the helix as their basic structural unit, from natural polynucleotides and polypeptides to synthetic helical polymers, and from bacterial flagella to colloidal helices. Here we present an extensive investigation of the phase diagram of hard helices using a var...

A pair of mutually twisted metallic cross-wires can produce giant optical activity. When this single chiral layer is stacked layer by layer in order to build a thick chiral metamaterial, strong coupling effects are found between the two adjacent chiral layers. We studied these coupling effects numerically and experimentally. The results show that the existing coupling between chiral layers can ...

We report our studies of vertical aligned mode on color filter liquid-crystal-on-silicon microdisplay. Three-dimensional optical analyses were performed to minimize fringing field effect in small color pixels. The simulation results were compared with experimental data and also the results of twisted nematic mode.

Liquid crystals (LCs) offer a promising playground for developing reconfigurable radio frequency devices due to their unique dielectric properties, including large birefringence and tunability. Previous research on phase shifters has primarily focused studying loss, response, However, the influence of surface-enforced alignment LC remains an area that requires further exploration. Here, we desi...

Laser manipulation of trapped radial 4'-n-pentyl-4-cyanobiphenyl (5CB) nematic liquid-crystal droplets induced by molecular reordering is presented. We show experimentally that optical tweezers having linear, elliptical, or circular polarization can break the radial symmetry of the initial molecular organization inside a radial nematic droplet. Static distorted or twisted deformation modes and ...

The contrast ratio of reflective bistable twisted nematic displays are optimized by means of a parameter space approach. By plotting the contrast ratio as a function of the twist angle and thickness-birefringence product of the display, the regions where the display shows the best contrast ratio are clearly shown. Both the absolute reflectance and wavelength dispersion of two bistable twisted s...

Stabilized reverse twisted nematic liquid crystal devices (RTN-LCDs) were fabricated using formation of a polymer matrix under UV irradiation with an applied voltage (sustain voltage) in the vicinity alignment layers. In absence voltage, non-stabilized RTN structure gradually returns to splay twist structure. The sustain was decreased increase temperature. A stabilized long-pitch supertwisted (...