Impact of dye on the switching responses of polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystal

Abstract

Polymer dispersed ferroelectric liquid crystals (PDFLCs) have disclosed an enormous approach for use in electro-optic and display technology since ferroelectric liquid crystals (FLCs) have inherently fast switching speeds. In this work, we equipped dichroic PDFLC using dye-doped chiral SmC* liquid crystal (LC) and ultra-violet (UV) curable polymer by polymerization induced phase separation (PIPS) method. All fundamental material aspects like optical transmissions, spontaneous polarization, threshold voltage, contrast ratio and response time as a function of applied voltage, temperature, and dye concentration were examined. In the electro-optic study, 82% transmission with a threshold field value ?0.6 V/?m was observed for PDFLC, however, 90% transmission was achieved with a threshold field ?0.3 V/?m at the dye concentration of 0.125% (wt./wt.). As a result, present dichroic PDFLC device shows microseconds switching response, higher polarization value and superior contrast, at low dye concentration. � 2017 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.