Photoaligned Chiral Liquid Crystal Grating with Hysteresis Switching

Abstract

AbstractMetastable topological states are known to arise when chiral liquid crystal (CLC) is infiltrated in a geometry with strong confinement. This study demonstrates an alternative approach to obtain multistable states, by combining patterned surface anchoring with CLC in a less confined geometry. Long pitch CLC is introduced between two 1D periodically rotating anchoring patterns at the top and bottom substrate with perpendicular rotation direction. Voltage‐induced switching is observed by polarizing optical microscopy and diffraction measurements. For some voltages two different stable topological states appear and electrical switching between these two states occurs via a hysteresis loop. The chirality in the LC material induces the formation of a new topological state at low voltages, which is not observed in nonchiral LC cells with the same anchoring configuration. Hysteresis switching between different optical states may find applications in low‐power devices with internal memory.