Birefringence measurement of liquid single crystal elastomer swollen with low molecular weight liquid crystal

Calamitic Liquid‐Crystalline Elastomers Swollen in Bent‐Core Liquid‐Crystal Solvents

“…The birefringence evolves in a same manner as L/L 0 , and reaches a value Dn ULCE % 0:11, which is comparable to previously measured values for this LCE system. [1,24] Use of the expressions relating Dn to Q and L/L 0 to Q B yields a value of a ¼ 0:6 for the ULCE, which is also in good agreement with values a % 0.7 [1] reported by other investigators on nematic LCEs.…”

“…The optical birefringence was measured as a function of temperature by replacing the digital camera with a spectrophotometer and measuring at l ¼ 533 nm the depolarized transmitted light intensity through the LCE, as described in Ref. [24]. The refractive-index anisotropy Dn was then calculated from the transmitted intensity and film thickness versus temperature data.…”

Enhancement of birefringence of liquid crystals with dispersion of poly (n-butyl methacrylate) (PBMA)

“…A function generator (Tektronix AFG-3021B) has been used to apply a 1 kHz sinusoidal voltage of magnitude much higher than the Frederick's threshold voltage of the sample under investigation. The intensity of the transmitted laser light can be written as [13,14] …”

Soft Actuators Based on Liquid‐Crystalline Elastomers

“…[8] Recently, photoinduced contractions of LCEs incorporating azobenzene derivatives was achieved upon their irradiation with UV light. [9] This photomechanical effect was ascribed to the decrease in the order parameter caused by a photochemical reaction (transcis isomerization): the rodlike trans-azobenzene moieties stabilize the LC alignment, whereas the bent cis forms lower the LC order parameter (Figure 2 a).…”