Electro-Optical Properties of Electric Field-Induced-Polymer Stabilization at Blue Phase of Chiral Nematic Liquid Crystal

Abstract

Polymer stabilization of the blue phase induced a wide temperature range of more than 60 K, but the high driving voltage and the large switching hysteresis compared to the low molecular weight blue phase of the chiral nematic liquid crystal. In this study, we newly proposed electric field-induced-polymer stabilization of blue phase (EFIPSBP) which the electric field was applied to the blue phase during polymer stabilization and investigated the driving voltage and the switching hysteresis using various voltage-applied EFIPSBP cells. We confirmed that the driving voltage and the switching hysteresis of the EFIPSBP cell were decreased compared to those of conventional polymer stabilized BP at 8OCB chiral nematic liquid crystal mixture. This could be suggested as a potential method for improving the driving voltage and the switching hysteresis of conventional polymer stabilized BP.

Keywords:

• Blue phase
• chiral nematic LC
• driving voltage
• electric field-induced polymer stabilization
• switching hysteresis

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank JNC Co. LTD for providing the nematic mixture, JC-1041XX. This work was supported by a Grant in Aid from Samsung Displays Co. LTD. Also, this work was also supported by the IT R&D program of MKE/KEIT [10041596, Development of Core Technology for TFT Free Active Matrix Addressing Color Electronic Paper with Day and Night Usage]. Finally, we are deeply grateful to Professor Hirotsugu Kikuchi at Kyushu University for his support.