Liquid crystal describes a material that shares properties of both a liquid and a solid crystal. This duality of consistency occurs because the material contains charged molecules whose dynamic “electrical bonds” produce changes in structure (liquid-like or crystal-like) dependent on the background electrical field and the contained thermal energy (temperature). Perhaps the best known example o...

Polymer-supported liquid-crystal membranes have been designed for neutral-carrier-type potassium ion-selective electrodes, aiming for practical applications of high-performance liquid-crystalline membrane ion sensors. Two types of polymer-supported liquid-crystal membranes were tested for their usefulness; one is microporous poly(tetra fluoroethylene) (PTFE) membranes impregnated by thermotropi...

We report five ultra-low viscosity nematic liquid crystal mixtures with birefringence around 0.1, dielectric anisotropy in the range of 3 to 6, and clearing temperature about 80°C. A big advantage of these low viscosity mixtures is low activation energy, which significantly suppresses the rising rate of viscosity at low temperatures. Using our mixture M3 as an example, the response time of a 3-...

The second and fourth harmonics of low frequency electric field-induced liquid crystal reorientations are analyzed theoretically and confirming results observed experimentally. These transient dynamic optical responses manifest when the phase of a homogeneous cell is nearby Np or ðN 2Þp, where N is an integer. These ripples would influence the grayscales of liquid crystal devices if the driving...

Recent advances in our high-speed analog liquid crystal spatial light modulators (SLMs) will be presented. These advancements include higher pixel density, smaller pixel pitch, greatly improved optical efficiency, and higher speed operation. The new VLSI SLMs can utilize ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) or nematic liquid crystal (NLC) to achieve phase-only, amplitude-only and phase-amplitude-...

A simple method for achieving high-contrast vertical alignment of high birefringence (Dn 0.28) negative dielectric anisotropic liquid crystal mixture using buffed polyimide substrates is demonstrated. By doping a positive, or non-polar dielectric anisotropic compound or mixture to the laterally difluorinated tolane liquid crystal host, an excellent vertical alignment was obtained. This alignmen...

An optical switch structure which combines a planar lightwave circuit and liquid crystal is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The switching is realized by inducing total internal reflection through controlling the refractive index of the liquid crystal. The principle and the design of the integrated optical switch are described. Experimental results suggest that anchoring of the liquid ...

We study the optical response of a metamaterial surface created by a lattice of split-ring resonators covered with a nematic liquid crystal and demonstrate millisecond timescale switching between electric and magnetic resonances of the metasurface. This is achieved due to a high sensitivity of liquid-crystal molecular reorientation to the symmetry of the metasurface as well as to the presence o...