Electrical Control of Unpolarized Reflectivity in Polymer‐Stabilized Cholesteric Liquid Crystals at Oblique Incidence
Abstract
The cholesteric liquid crystal phase at or near normal incidence selectively reflects circularly polarized light matching the handedness of the helicoidal superstructure. At large angles of incidence, both senses of circularly polarized light are reflected over a certain wavelength range. Stabilizing the cholesteric liquid crystal phase with low concentrations of polymer network that maintains structural chirality allows the pitch (and accordingly, the selective reflection) to be adjusted with an electric field. Here, the behavior of these polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals is investigated at large angles of incidence, to determine how the total reflection evolves when the polymer network is deformed by an external DC field. Strong, unpolarized reflection is observed in polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals at oblique angles over a wide range of field values. As the application of a DC electric field can adjust the position or bandwidth of the total reflection in polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals, these reconfigurable devices could find potential end use in optical applications where polarization independent properties are needed, such as spectroscopy and polarimetry.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Oct 03, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1002/adom.201800957
Entities
People
- Dean R. Evans
- Ighodalo U. Idehenre
- John F. Binzer
- Kyung Min Lee
- Mariacristina Rumi
- Michael E. McConney
- Partha P. Banerjee
- Timothy J. Bunning
- Timothy White
- Vincent P. Tondiglia
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Air Force Research Laboratory
- Azimuth Corporation
- University of Colorado Boulder
- University of Dayton