Discovery of a transiently separable high-speed response component in cholesteric liquid crystals with a uniform lying helix

Abstract

We report a novel high-speed response component observed in the transient state in cholesteric liquid crystals (ChLCs) with a uniform lying helix (ULH). When an electric field is applied normal to the helix axis, two well-known physical phenomena are induced: (i) the flexo-electric effect and (ii) the elongation of the helical structure. In this study, we show that the latter effect can be additionally separated into two different components with fast and slow response times, which reorient the LC director along the electric field without and with the helical pitch elongation, respectively.