In this paper we discuss newly developed microfabrication methods for liquid crystal polymer (LCP). LCP is a thermoplastic polymer made of aligned molecule chains with crystal-like spatial regularity. It exhibits unique electrical, physical and chemical properties, making it suitable for certain MEMS applications. MEMS-compatible fabrication processes such as metallization, plasma bulk etching ...

Tisato Kajiyama Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University, Fligashi-ku, Fukuoka 812 A bimolecular membrane of phospholipids such as lecithin is in a state of liquid crystal capable of reversible structural modifications and its permeation property depends on such reversible change. Artificial amphiphiles with monoalkyl and dialkyl groups form multilamellar liposome composed of the bimolecular l...

Bragg gratings, holographically formed in polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (H-PDLCs) are studied. Mixture of the commercially available E7 liquid crystal and NOA65 polymer in ration 1:1 are employed. Polymerisation in presence of electric field is produced. A significant increase of the diffraction efficiency in the case of field-applied recording is observed. The exposure characteristics, ele...

In this work we investigate the optical properties of electrically switched transmission gratings fabricated holographically using polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal (PDLC) materials. We have found that the PDLC mixture can be used to control the diffractive properties of the liquid-crystal composite gratings. In one limit the gratings are highly isotropic and in the other limit the gratings are ...

Introduction. The properties and the chemical structure dependence of side-chain liquid crystal polymers have been extensively studied in recent years because of their potential applications in nonlinear optics, information storage, and display devices.1,2 A side-chain liquid crystal polymer often comprises three basic components: a polymer backbone, a mesogenic unit, and a flexible spacer that...

We demonstrate the photonic bandgap effect and the thermal tunability of bandgaps in microstructured polymer optical fibers infiltrated with liquid crystal. Two liquid crystals with opposite sign of the temperature gradient of the ordinary refractive index (E7 and MDA-00-1444) are used to demonstrate that both signs of the thermal tunability of the bandgaps are possible. The useful bandgaps are...

We demonstrate a variable optical attenuator (VOA) at lambda=1.55 microm using a sheared polymer network liquid crystal (SPNLC). The SPNLC exhibits a fast response time and weak wavelength dependency. Comparing with other polymer-stabilized liquid crystals, the SPNLC has lower driving voltage and negligible light scattering loss when the wavelength exceeds 700 nm. A reflection type VOA with ~0....

By using soluble fullerene derivative [60]PCBM, we improved photorefractive efficiency in polymer-liquid crystal composites in comparison to previous works on similar materials. We show the effect of polymer network results in resolution and bandwidth improvements compared to pure liquid crystals. This is explained by the introduction of a charge trapping mechanism, providing a memory effect fo...

Temperature effect on lasing from a Penrose photonic quasicrystal made of low index contrast materials holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals was investigated. A blue-shift of lasing peak was observed with increased temperature in the range of 25 °C~50 °C. The transmission spectra of Penrose photonic quasicrystal was studied through FDTD simulation, which showed a correlation between the...

The recent development of materials for organic field effect transistors (OFETs), including small-molecule and polymer materials, are briefly reviewed, and the problems that remain to be solved prior to practical application and use are discussed. Liquid crystalline materials are good candidates for OFETs because of their advantageous properties over soluble small-molecule materials. Liquid cry...