Polymer-Dispersed Smectic Devices

Nematic gels are very interesting systems, thus deserving further study. Actually, these systems are being studied experimentally for applications. Examples are polymer dispersed liquid crystal displays are sometimes dispersed not in a polymer, but in a polymer network. Displays by means of the polymer stabilized cholesteric texture change, are also achieved in crosslinked systems. In addition, the chiral smectic phase has been obtained in such systems as well. Other types of liquid crystal gels have been applied or are expected to be applied in such devices. 

Lu Yang, Wei Jie, Shi Yang, et al. Effects of fabrication condition on the network morphology and electro-optical characteristics of polymer-dispersed bistable smectic A liquid crystal device. Liq. Cryst. 40 no. 5 (2013) 581-588. 

Although by far nematics are the most extensively used ones, other phases (smectic, cholesteric, etc.) of hquid crystals and mixed systems such as polymer-dispersed liquid crystals capable of field-induced reorientation have also been employed for electro-optical studies and applications. They are basically based on the same basic mechanism of field-induced director axis reorientation similar to nematic hquid crystals i.e., the response is Kerr like in that it is independent of the direction of the electric field. In general, nematic liquid crystal electro-optics devices switch at a rate of several terrs of hertz, corresponding to response times from a few to tens of microsecorrds. 

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