We present a 1D/2D switchable grating based on field-induced polymer stabilized blue phase liquid crystal (PSBPLC). For 1D grating, the diffraction efficiency of the first order is 37.2% and the phase modulation depth of the 1D grating can achieve 2π. For 2D grating, more than 90% of light intensity is distributed to the surrounding orders of zero order and the phase modulation depth is about 3.67π. Furthermore it shows fast phase modulation and 1D/2D switching time.

A polymer-stabilized (PS) blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) with fast response time and large Kerr constant is investigated by doping a low molecular weight monomer (N-vinylpyrrollidone) into a conventional PS-BPLC consisting of BPLC, RM257, and 1,1,1-trimethylolpropane triacrylate. With this polymer network system, Kerr constant and the response can be improved simultaneously. Compared to the conventional PS-BPLC, Kerr constant of the proposed PS-BPLC can increase by 54% and the response time can decrease by 23% at the same time. The contrast ratio can be kept at a high level, over 1000:1 at λ = 633 nm.

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We investigated random lasing from a fluid self-assembly sphere-phase liquid crystal, which was composed of three-dimensional twist sphere structures with disclinations among them. The threshold energy of the random lasing from sphere-phase liquid crystal was 32% of that from the chiral nematic phase because of the interference associated with multiple scattering by randomly distributed sphere-phase platelets. Such random lasers composed of self-assembly soft organic materials may be useful for holographic displays, point-of-care biomedical analysis, and optical security coatings.

The Pb(Zr1−xTix)O3 multilayered films consisting of Pb(Zr0.8Ti0.2)O3 and Pb(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3 layers with different orientations were deposited by radio frequency magnetron sputtering with PbOx and LaNiO3 (LNO) buffer layers. The PbOx and LNO buffer layers lead to the (001)∕(100) and (101)∕(110) orientations of the multilayered films, respectively. The orientation dependence of electrical properties of the multilayered films was investigated. Enhanced remnant polarization (2Pr=79.3μC∕cm2) and dielectric constant (εr=857) were obtained for the multilayered films with (001)∕(100) orientation as compared to those of the multilayered films with other orientations. These results reveal that the orientation control is important in obtaining good electrical properties.