Influence of Curing Frequency on the Morphology and the Electro-Optical Property of Polymer-Stabilized Cholesteric Textures

Abstract

The effect of curing frequency on the morphology of polymer networks and the electro-optical property of normal-mode polymer-stabilized cholesteric textures (PSCTs) has been investigated. The scanning electron microscopy indicates that the shape of polymer networks transforms from honeycomb-like to fiber-like due to the increased solubility of the monomer at higher curing frequencies. The PSCTs cured at lower frequencies with sufficiently large network voids show a two-stage reorientation process that correlates with two kinds of cholesteric liquid crystal (LC) under different environments. The threshold voltage decreases as the curing frequency increases from 1 Hz to 10,000 Hz, while the field-off response time increases.

Keywords:

• Curing frequency
• electro-optical property
• morphology of polymer network
• polymer-stabilized cholesteric textures
• two-stage reorientation process

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61107014, 51203039, 2120417), Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant No. NCET-12-0839), National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB723406), National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2012AA011901).