Sub-millisecond nematic liquid crystal switches using patterned command layer

Abstract

Switching speeds of nematic liquid crystal (LC) cells in the sub-millisecond range are observed for 3-D patterned self assembled monolayers (SAMs) on indium-tin-oxide (ITO) substrates. To achieve such fast LC response and relaxation times, thermal treatments of the patterned SAM-on-ITO are required, increasing the relative anchoring energy experienced by the interacting LC molecules.

Independent control of polar and azimuthal anchoring

“…By imprinting a design of appropriate symmetry, it is also possible to pattern a surface to promote more than one stable alignment orientation [2,[11][12][13][14] thus enabling the fabrication of bistable devices [2,10,[15][16][17][18]. Very recently SAM-patterned substrates have been used to achieve rapid switching [19].…”

Electric field generation of Skyrmion-like structures in a nematic liquid crystal

“…Recently, light-controlled generation and observation of topological charges pinned on a microfiber in a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) was reported. 14 Patterned patchy surfaces can be used in sensing applications, 15 , 16 they show impressive switching times, 17 , 18 or can be used in controlled generation of topological charges, as we demonstrate in this paper. The topological charge is a conserved quantity attributed to topological entities, 19 , 20 but has not been discussed in the context of Skyrmions yet.…”

Ultrafast all-optical response of a nematic liquid crystal

“…Here we focus on the instantaneous optical response of collectively ordered liquid crystal molecules in the nematic phase to an applied ̴ 100 fs optical pulse. We observe a strong and fast transient response of the birefringence of the NLC in the order of ̴ 500 fs, which is polarization-dependent and is five to eight orders of magnitude faster than ever observed before [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. In combination with self-assembly [19] and topology [20], which are inherent properties of nematic liquid crystals, our results not only promise implementation of NLCs in ultrafast photonic devices, but also demonstrate a new and absolutely unexplored aspect of LCs.…”

“…Improvement in the overall working speed might be achieved by a proper patterning of the LC cell [1], but still showing characteristic timescale of the order of 1 ms. To investigated shorter time scales laser system are required. In this respect, nano-and picosecond laserinduced molecular reorientation in NLCs and dye-doped NLCs has been investigated since the 90's [2][3][4][5].…”