Electro-optic effects in side-chain polymer liquid crystals

Abstract

A brief background to electro-optic effects in side-chain polymer liquid crystals has been given. Electro-optic effects in dyed and undyed smectic polysiloxanes are described and it has been shown that these high-contrast optical effects may be written on the ca. 100 ms timescale and are stored in the smectic phase above T_g. It has also been shown that ultra-high contrast and resolution laser writing may be achieved with both aligned and scattering textures. Finally, it has been demonstrated that the siloxane polymers may be added to monomeric liquid crystals to control their viscoelastic properties. This has led to a desirable improvement in these properties and the polymer characteristics likely to lead to further improvements have been discussed.