Optical anisotropy of uniaxially oriented films of polymer-encapsulated liquid crystals

摘要

Uniaxially oriented films of polymer-encapsulated liquid crystals (PELCs) possess strong light-scattering anisotropy. The macroscopic transmittance anisotropy in uniaxially oriented PELC films can be strengthened by adding dichroic dyes to the LC drops. The ratio T-perpendicular to/T-parallel to of the principal components of the optical transmittance polarized perpendicular and parallel to the orientation of the PELCs, respectively, has been measured for He-Ne laser radiation transmitted through uniaxially oriented samples. The experiments showed that the transmittance anisotropy T-perpendicular to/T-parallel to for samples doped with dye is greater than the anisotropy caused only by light scattering. (c) 2005 Optical Society of America.