MRS Proceedings
- MRS Proceedings / Volume 1293 / 2011
- Copyright © Materials Research Society 2011
- DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1557/opl.2011.23 (About DOI)
Table of Contents - Volume 1293 - Symposium L – Liquid-Crystal Materials—Beyond Displays
Editors : N.L. Abbott, D.J. Broer, T. Kato, T.J. White
Articles
Ultrafast Switching Liquid Crystals for Electro-Optic Transmissive and Reflective Displays and Microscopic Lasers
2010 MRS Fall Meeting.
Harry J Colesa1, Stephen M Morrisa1, Flynn Castlesa1, Philip J W Handsa1, Timothy D Wilkinsona1 and Su Soek Choia1
a1 Centre of Molecular Materials for Photonics and Electronics, Electrical Engineering Division, University of Cambridge, 9 JJ Thomson Avenue, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB3 0FA, UK.
ABSTRACT
We report on novel liquid crystals with extremely large flexoelectric coefficients in a range of ultra-fast photonic modes, namely 1) the uniform lying helix, that leads to in-plain switching, birefringence phase devices with 100 μs switching times at low fields, i.e.2-5 V/μm, and analogue or grey scale capability, 2) the uniform standing helix, using planar surface alignment and in-plane fields, with sub ms response times and optical contrasts in excess of 5000:1 with a perfect optically isotropic or black “off state”, 3) the wide temperature range blue phase that leads to field controlled reflective color, 4) chiral nematic optical reflectors electric field tunable over a wide wavelength range and 5) high slope efficiency, wide wavelength range tunable narrow linewidth microscopic liquid crystal lasers.
Key Words:
- liquid crystal;
- laser;
- optoelectronic
