Chiral Flexoelectro-Optic Effect in a Surface-Polymer Assisted Cholesterics with Uniform Lying Helix

Abstract

Fast-switching flexoelectric cholesteric liquid crystal displays that can be operated in two modes: amplitude (flexoelectric effect, in-plane-switching) and phase (dielectric coupling, out-of-plane switching) have been developed. The device comprises of a small amount of polymer network localized at the substrate surfaces and short-pitch cholesteric liquid crystal whose helical axis laid in the direction parallel to the substrates. The surface-localized polymer network stabilizes the helical axis in the plane parallel to the substrates at zero voltage. The response times for amplitude and phase switching of a polymer-stabilized cholesteric display with 2 microns cell gap are 200 μs at 3.5 V/μm and 3 ms at 12.5 V/μm, respectively. Using a dual-frequency switchable nematic liquid crystal, we are able to improve the contrast of the amplitude switching by obtaining a larger deviation angle of helical axis with a high voltage and in the same time, suppressing the helix unwinding.