Abstract
We proposed an electrically assisting crystal growth of blue phase liquid crystals (BP-LCs) to generate uniform crystal orientation of BP-LCs. With an applied electric field, a phase transition from BP-LCs to focal conic state and homeotropic state occurs. As the electric field is removed, the crystal orientation of [220] quickly dominates the crystal growth process and other crystal orientations grow less at the same time. The BP-LCs with a single crystal orientation can be achieved with multiple cycles of the electrical treatment. We also provide a possible mechanism of crystal growth with electrical treatment which is applicable for both BP-LCs and PSBP-LCs. In addition, we conclude that the hysteresis effect is mainly affected by the domain size of PSBP-LCs rather than uniformity of crystal orientation. This study helps further understanding of the origin of hysteresis effect in PSBP-LCs which is important for development of many BP-LCs based photonic devices, such as micro lenses, displays, and lasers.
Highlights
Blue phase liquid crystals (BP-LCs) usually exists between a cholesteric state and an isotropic state, which possesses a structure of double twist cylinders and forms as threedimensional photonic crystals
After the sample was treated with several cycles of voltage, the BP-LCs appeared in a uniform crystal orientation of [220] while the domain size was hardly changed
When an external voltage is applied on the sample, BP-LCs turns into focal conic state and homeotropic state, and the area of focal conic state increases with the cycles of applied voltage
Summary
Blue phase liquid crystals (BP-LCs) usually exists between a cholesteric state and an isotropic state, which possesses a structure of double twist cylinders and forms as threedimensional photonic crystals. It was found that polymer-stabilized BPIII was hysteresis-free in spite of a relatively narrow temperature range as well as high operational voltage [20]. The PSBP-LCs with a large domain size and a uniform crystal orientation exhibits no hysteresis. Yan et al achieved a monodomain PSBP-LCs by applying a single electric field and they demonstrated an application for a reflective display [22,23]. We demonstrate an electrically assisting crystal growth of blue phase liquid crystals to achieve BP-LCs with single crystal orientation and propose a mechanism of how electrical field assists crystal growth of BP-LCs. The BP-LCs turned into focal conic textures and homeotropic states when we applied an electric field, and a more uniform BP-LCs re-grew as the electric field was removed. We discuss and conclude the main reasons for the origin of hysteresis effect based on the experimental results
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