We have fabricated electrically switchable holographic gratings, using Polaroid Corporation's DMP-128 photopolymer filled with the nematic liquid crystal E7. It is shown that a coupled-wave theory that includes the effects of the birefringence of the liquid crystal must be used to explain the diffraction properties of these anisotropic volume gratings. Furthermore, a detailed comparison of theo...

The proton NMR spectra of ethane, propane, and n-butane codissolved and orientationally ordered in two liquid-crystal solvents that exhibit both nematic (N) and smectic A (SmA) phases (one of which also has a reentrant nematic (RN) phase) are analyzed using CMA-ES (covariance-matrix adaptation evolution strategy). To deal with problems arising from the broad liquid-crystal background signal, a ...

When liquid crystal elastomers are prepared without any alignment, disordered polydomain structures emerge as the materials are cooled into the nematic phase. These polydomain structures are often attributed to quenched disorder in the cross-linked polymer network. As an alternative explanation, we develop a theory for the dynamics of the isotropic-nematic transition in liquid crystal elastomer...

An optimization technique determining the configuration of optical components in a spatial light modulator is proposed. We study a spatial light modulator composed of a twisted nematic liquid crystal, a polarization state generator, and a polarization state detector. To obtain the desired phase and amplitude modulations, four parameters of the polarization state generator and detector should be...

We design and assess a one-dimensional photonic crystal slab fabricated by preferential etching of a silicon-on-insulator substrate. The etched grooves are considered to be infiltrated by a highly-birefringent nematic liquid crystalline material. A detailed analysis of the nematic director response within the grooves is presented. We investigate different configurations and demonstrate large ba...

This paper presents an advanced patterned vertical aligned nematic liquid crystal (APVA) mode as a way of improving the transmittance of the conventional patterned, vertically-aligned nematic liquid crystal (PVA) mode. The APVA was characterized by multi-electrodes, which play an important role in generating a horizontal electric field that prevents LC disclination in the vicinity of the middle...

We study nematic liquid crystal configurations in a prototype bistable device the Post Aligned Bistable Nematic (PABN) cell [9]. Working within the Oseen-Frank continuum model, we describe the liquid crystal configuration by a unit-vector field n, in a model version of the PABN cell. Firstly, we identify four distinct topologies in this geometry. We explicitly construct trial configurations wit...

We study nematic liquid crystal configurations in a prototype bistable device the Post Aligned Bistable Nematic (PABN) cell [9]. Working within the Oseen-Frank continuum model, we describe the liquid crystal configuration by a unit-vector field n, in a model version of the PABN cell. Firstly, we identify four distinct topologies in this geometry. We explicitly construct trial configurations wit...

The liquid crystalline phases of matter each possess distinct types of defects that have drawn great interest in areas such as topology, self-assembly and material micropatterning. However, relatively little is known about how defects in one liquid crystalline phase arise from defects or deformations in another phase upon crossing a phase transition. Here, we directly examine defects in the in ...

Using an atomic force microscope to nanopattern a substrate for liquid crystal alignment, a bend distortion is imposed on a liquid crystal. In regions of large bend the smectic-A phase melts into the nematic phase, and the width of the melted region is measured as a function of temperature. The results are consistent with type-I superconducting (nematic — smectic-A) behavior, wherein a large ma...