Phase transitional behaviors of bent-cored liquid crystal in electric field

Electric-field-induced patterns and their temperature dependence in a bent-core liquid crystal.

Two kinds of electroconvection patterns in an ether-bridged bent-core nematic liquid crystal material (BCN), which appear in different frequency ranges, are examined and compared. One is a longitudinal pattern with the stripes parallel to the orientation of the BCN and with a periodicity of approximately the cell thickness, occurring in the high-frequency range of several hundreds Hz; the other...

Electric field induced biaxiality and the electro-optic effect in a bent-core nematic liquid crystal

We report the observation of a biaxial nematic phase in a bent-core molecular system using polarizing microscopy, electro-optics, and dielectric spectroscopy, where we find that the biaxiality exists on a microscopic scale. An application of electric field induces a macroscopic biaxiality and in consequence gives rise to electro-optic switching. This electro-optic effect shows significant poten...

Electric Field Dependence of the Electric Conductivity in Liquid Crystals Made of Bent-Core Molecules

Direct measurement of electric-field-induced birefringence in a polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystal composite.

We demonstrate a method to directly measure the electric-field-induced birefringence of a polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystal (PS-BPLC) composite. The induced birefringence follows the extended Kerr effect well and is approximately 3X the ordinary refractive index change. The measured data are validated by comparing the simulated and measured voltage-dependent transmittance with an in-...

Electric-field-induced deformation of a chiral liquid-crystal elastomer in smectic A phase

Mechanical response to electrical stimulus has been investigated in a chiral smectic A elastomer. During the application of electric field, the two-dimensional strain tensor was precisely measured by tracking fluorescent beads dispersed on the film. It was found that the shear strain is dominantly induced by the electric field and proportional to the applied electric field.