A method for enlarging the Kerr constant of polymer-stabilised blue phases

Abstract

Polymer-stabilised blue phase (PSBP) is one of the most promising materials for display devices because of its superior electro-optical properties compared with conventional nematics. However, the application of the PSBP has a serious practical issue in that the driving voltage required is too high to drive with thin film transitors, that is, the magnitude of the Kerr constant of PSBPs is insufficient. We present a useful method for increasing the Kerr constant based on the control of polymer aggregation structure using a cross-linker with a chiral structure. The director distortion arising from polymer networks in the PSBP seems to be responsible for the resulting improvement.

Keywords:

• Kerr effects
• blue phase
• polymer
• birefringence

Acknowledgements

This work was partly supported by the Japan Science and Technology Agency. We thank Dr S-W. Choi for the determination of the correction factor A value.