Liquid Crystal Polar State and Fast Switching

摘要

Some of the liquid crystal materials exhibit states with spontaneous and/or field-induced polarization. The coupling between an applied electric field and such a polar state of the liquid crystal enables fast switching of the liquid crystals and thus generation of fast electro-optic response. Very attractive for the purposes of fast switching is the field-induced flexoelectric polarized state in short pitch cholesterics. An electric field applied perpendicular to the cholesteric helix axis results in fast switching of the liquid crystal molecules around the field direction giving thus rise to an electro-optic response with switching times in the microsecond region.