Electric Field Induced Texture Changes in Certain Nematic/Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Mixtures

On a Simple Way for Obtaining Important Material Constants of a Nematic Liquid Crystal: Longitudinal Flexoelectric Domains Under the Joint Action of DC and AC Voltages

“…However, the measurements of the elastic constants and the flexoelectric coefficients are scarce [6,7,21,22] and in some cases controversial. BMAOB is a mixture of two isomers and is very similar to the liquid crystal produced by Merck under the name Merck IV or N4 [3,24,25,26]. The only difference is in the ratio of the two isomers: 60 versus 40 wt% (BMAOB) and the reverse (N4).…”

Multistable alignment states in nematic liquid crystal filled wells

“…Cholesteric liquid crystals, which have tight helical pitch values, have long been known to give two stable textures ͑planar and focal conic͒ when combined in a thin layer and this effect has more recently been exploited for display applications. 10,11 In the current work azimuthal bistability, and multistability, has been achieved by the confinement of nematic liquid crystal in a square well. 12 A schematic diagram showing a section through the device is shown in Fig.…”

Development and applications of cholesteric liquid crystals

“…In 1973, it was shown for the first time by Greubel et al [34] that it was not only possible to electrically switch a thin film of positive dielectric anisotropy cholesteric from the planar state to focal state but this could be electrically reversed by switching the focal conic state to the homeotropic state and then quickly removing the applied field. It was later found that a transient planar state (of about twice the pitch length of the stable planar state) [35] occurs during this transition.…”