Diffractive Liquid Crystal Pressure Detector

Abstract

In this work we present the study of reconfigurable by an applied electric field and sensitive to mechanical deformations bubble domain (BD) texture of cholesteric liquid crystal confined into a cell with homeotropic alignment conditions. We discuss the phenomenon of metastability of the BD texture, optimal conditions for obtaining and reconfiguring of the BD texture with applied electric field and pressure. We present and analyze time response curves to an applied electric field with the threshold pressure and suggest the application of the BD texture as a pressure detector.