INS3-0093
Effect of Polymer Network on Dynamic Behavior of Cholesteric Liquid Crystals
Topic
S3. Processing / Fabrications (Emerging Horizons in Polymer Processing and Fabrication)
When and Where
Sep 30, 2026
15:50 - 16:15
Room 104
Session Chairs
Dong Gi SEONG
Presenter(s)
Kyung Min Lee (Air Fore Research Laboratory)
Co-Author(s)
Abstract
Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs) have emerged as promising candidates for a wide range of optical applications, owing to their unique self-assembling photonic properties. It has been demonstrated that introducing a polymer stabilization network into CLCs enables diverse dynamic responses, thereby allowing for the realization of a wide range of functionalities. In this work, we present a comprehensive investigation of the role of polymer networks in governing the dynamic behavior of various CLC and liquid crystal (LC) systems. Our group has previously demonstrated that polymer-stabilized CLCs (PSCLCs) with negative dielectric anisotropy exhibit remarkable dynamic responses, including bandwidth broadening, red/blue spectral tuning, and switching. Building upon these findings, we extend our study to several advanced systems: (i) polymer-stabilized uniform lying helix CLCs (PSULH CLCs) and fingerprint texture CLCs (FP-PSCLCs), where the polymer network effectively freezes switched textures to enable reversible dynamic switching; (ii) holographically patterned polymer-stabilized LCs (H-PSLCs), exhibiting AC field-induced switching and DC field-induced red tuning; and (iii) polymer-stabilized blue phase LCs (PSBPLCs), demonstrating AC field-induced switching between reflective and transparent states via the Kerr effect (E < Ec), and DC field-induced red tuning through electrostriction-driven lattice distortion (E > Ec) in BP-I. Collectively, these results highlight the critical role of polymer networks in enabling and tailoring dynamic optical across diverse CLC and LC platforms.
