Dynamics of polymer-dispersed cholesteric liquid crystals

Abstract

We have studied the electrooptic properties of droplets of cholesteric liquid crystal dispersed in a polymer. Application of AC electric fields to the droplets leads to a conversion of the droplet from a nonreflecting to a selectively reflecting appearance. When the field is suddenly switched on, the switching times are found to decrease strongly with increasing field strength, with increasing temperature and with decreasing drop size. For the switching off process, both switching times and microscopic textures indicate that two different relaxation processes can occur, depending on the applied voltage and on the drop size.