No abstract

A liquid crystal (LC) mixture in liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) is the core material for augmented reality (AR) displays. However, a LC mixture with high birefringence (Δn) and large dielectric anisotropy (Δε) possesses high viscosity (γ1), which results in a slow response time of LCoS devices for AR displays. This work proposes to apply difluorovinyl-based LC diluters to fine balance the low viscosity, high ∆n, and large ∆ε of the LC mixture for a fast response time. Through studying their effects on the key electro-optical properties of a high-∆n LC mixture, it is found that doping these diluter molecules to a high-∆n LC mixture can decrease the viscoelastic coefficient (γ1/K11), increase ∆ε and the figure of merit, maintain a wide nematic phase temperature range, a high clearing point, and ∆n. It also means that these diluters could effectively regulate the relationship between ∆n, ∆ε, and γ1 in the LC mixtures to achieve a fine balance of various excellent properties and further improve the LC device’s response time. The widespread applications of these liquid crystal diluters in emerging liquid crystal optical devices are foreseeable.

A new liquid crystal diluter was designed and synthesized to balance trade‐offs between low viscosity, high Δn, and large Δε in the LC mixture. Research results indicated that this diluter had excellent properties of low melting point, high Δn, and large Δε. Meanwhile, in a high‐Δn LC mixture, it could effectively reduce the viscoelastic coefficient (γ1/K11), and increase the As while maintaining an equivalent LC phase temperature range and Δn. It means that the LC diluter plays an essential role to improve the response time of LCs.

No abstract