STUDY OF THE STRIPED TEXTURE IN THE POLYMER NETWORK STABILIZED FERROELECTRIC LIQUID CRYSTAL CELLS

Abstract

A monomer with reactive diacrylate was mixed with a commercial ferroelectric liquid crystal(FLC) mixture and polymerized under U.V. irradiation together with the application of an electric field of ±50V and 10Hz to obtain polymer network stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystals(PNSFLC). Polarized microscope and scanning electron microscopy(SEM) were used to study the molecule texture and the polymer network structure. It is found that the polymer network formed in the SmC phase is anisotropic and fibrils-like , and the PNSFLC cell shows a striped texture. The striped texture is explained by the elastic free energy theory.