The effect of polymer networks on ferroelectric liquid crystals

Abstract

Using a relative small amount of reactive mesogenic monomer and a quasi-bookshelf texture of ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) we developed submicron-scale templated polymer fibrils from the two-dimensionally ordered hosts. The polymer fibrils capture the orientation of the host with thin polymer fibrils interweaving the smectic layers that act as additional surfaces for controlling the reorientation of FLC molecules. The SEM study shows the difference in morphology of the polymer fibrils depending on the polymerization conditions and FLC hosts. There are two distinctive electro-optical properties of polymer modified FLC such as the fast switching at a lower applied field and the voltage independence of switching time achieved by polymer stabilization using a mesogenic monomer. Further, we describe how the polymer network and the type of FLC enhance the realization of V-shaped switching behavior.