Lattice plane control of liquid crystal blue phase

Abstract

A correlation between the orientation of the lattice plane of liquid crystal blue phase (BP) and the surface free energy of the solid substrates which were coated with a polyimide thin layer or treated by a silane coupling reagent was investigated. The lattice plane was identified from the optical texture observation and the reflection spectra of BP. It was confirmed that the orientation of the lattice plane of BP was closely related to the surface free energy of the substrate. In particular, the area fraction of the lattice plane {110} of BP I increased as the polar component (γ^p) decreased.

Keywords:

• optically isotropic liquid crystal
• blue phase
• lattice plane
• surface free energy

Acknowledgements

This study was partly supported by the Regional Research and Development Resources Utilization Type Program, an A-STEP from the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). The author thank Dr Miyazawa for his kind support.