摘要:

We have investigated the electro-optical effects and physical switching principle of homogeneously aligned nematic liquid crystals when applying an in-plane electric field with interdigital electrodes. By using the in-plane switching (IPS) of the liquid crystals which is achieved by the in-plane electric field, the viewing angle characteristics of the electro-optical effects were confirmed to be far superior to those of the conventional twisted nematic mode in which the electric field is applied along the direction perpendicular to the substrates. The non-reversal region of grey scales was extremely wide in which a high contrast ratio was kept, even along quite an oblique direction in the IPS mode. In order to clarify the switching principle of the liquid crystals in the IPS mode, a simplified expression describing the threshold behaviour of the device was derived with the assumption that a uniform in-plane electric field was applied along a direction perpendicular to the director and parallel to the homogeneously aligned nematic slab, and found to be sufficiently able to explain the experimental results. First, a critical field at which the liquid crystals just began to twist, was found to be proportional to the reciprocal of the cell gap. Second, it was the electric field and not the voltage that drives the liquid crystals. This relationship was due to the independence of the electric field regarding the liquid crystal layer normal direction. So the threshold voltage in the IPS mode was strongly dependent on the variation of the cell gap. For the dynamical response mechanism of the liquid crystals to the in-plane electric field, the switching on and off processes of the liquid crystals were analysed quantitatively. The relaxation time of the liquid crystals when removing the electric field could be described as proportional to the square of the cell gap. A thinner cell gap also proved to be effective in obtaining a fast response time in the IPS mode. In contrast, the switching on time when applying the in-plane electric field was found to be inversely proportional to the difference between the square of the electric field strength and the square of the critical electric field strength at which the liquid crystals began to deform.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209090

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Viewing angle characteristics were systematically obtained when using in-plane switching (IPS) of liquid crystals. Although the IPS mode originally shows stable electro-optical performance regardless of viewing directions, the viewing angle characteristics are found to be strongly dependent on pretilt angle (slant angle of the liquid crystals from the substrate). Experimentally, the smaller the pretilt angle of the liquid crystal, the much wider the viewing angle characteristics, while larger pretilt angles of liquid crystals cause the characteristics to deteriorate. This deterioration occurs in a particular viewing direction, i.e. at right angles to the initial orientation direction of the liquid crystal when there is no in-plane electric field. The experimentally observed behaviour of the viewing angle dependence on the pretilt angle was also confirmed by computer simulations. Calculated iso-contrast contour lines, as a function of the pretilt angles, nearly coincide with the experimentally obtained viewing angle characteristics of the contrast ratio.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209108

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The switching currents and field-induced apparent tilt angles in an antiferroelectric liquid crystal, (R)-MHPOBC, were measured. The structural differences among different smectic C* subphases may sensitively reflect the field or temperature dependence of the apparent tilt angle. In a thin cell, the apparent tilt angle was found to change in two steps as a function of field strength in the SmC*alpha and SmC* phases: a steep increase at lower fields and a small linear increase at higher fields. The steep increase in apparent tilt angle is divided into two parts via a plateau in the ferrielectric SmC*gamma phase. Stepwise change with a plateau is also seen in the relation of apparent tilt angle versus temperature under various electric fields. Moreover, the apparent tilt angle in the vicinity of the plateau is almost temperature- and field-independent, implying a preferred orientation of the molecules in the ferrielectric state. The influence of the cell thickness on the structural changes was also investigated.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209117

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Temperature and bias-field dependences of dielectric behaviour in the antiferroelectric liquid crystal, R-MHPOBC, were investigated (see also previous paper). There are mainly two relaxation modes in the SmC*alpha and SmC* phases: one behaves as the soft-mode, which shows significant slowing down in the SmA* and SmC*alpha phases; the other one appears at lower frequencies and changes the dielectric strength remarkably, especially in the SmC* phase, which is considered to relate to the azimuthal phase-fluctuation of molecules in the parallel tilt sequences of the smectic layers. These two modes show different bias field dependences in different C* subphases. In the SmC*A phase, two other types of relaxation mode were observed, which are probably due to the in-phase and anti-phase azimuthal angle fluctuations of molecules in the anti-tilt pairs.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209126

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

New polymeric liquid crystals can be treated as standard nematic liquid crystals when only their bulk properties are at issue, but they exhibit peculiar surface properties. The most striking one is that biaxial distributions may be induced on a confining surface. On continuously varying the surface anchoring conditions, we find a first-order phase transition from planar to homeotropic alignment in the bulk. Moreover, the decay towards these uniaxial states is radically different in the two cases: it is asymptotically exponential in the former, whereas it happens abruptly at a finite depth in the latter. There is precisely one surface biaxial distribution that induces bistability between these decay modes: it depends on the elastic constants in the Landau-de Gennes free energy functional. The analysis of the model we propose can prove useful in detecting the sign of the difference between splay and bend constants.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209135

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Novel amphiphilic glucamine derivatives have been synthesized. These are N-benzoyl-1-deoxy1-methylamino-D-glucitols and N-benzoyl-1-amino-1-deoxy-D-glucitols carrying one, two or three aliphatic chains (CnH2n 1O- with n 3, 6 and 12) grafted to the benzamido group. The thermotropic mesophases of these compounds were studied by thermal polarizing optical microscopy and differential scanning calorimetry, and some also by X-ray scattering. Depending on the number and the length of the alkyl chains lamellar, bicontinuous cubic, hexagonal columnar or inverted micellar cubic mesophases were detected by analogy with lyotropic systems. In the contact region between lamellar phases of the single chain amphiphiles and micellar cubic phases of the mesomorphic triple chain compounds, hexagonal columnar phases can be induced. A hexagonal columnar phase was also induced in the contact region between a bicontinuous and a micellar cubic mesophase. The lyotropic liquid crystalline behaviour of the dodecyloxy substituted N-benzoyl-1-deoxy-1-methylamino-D-glucitols was investigated by the solvent penetration method using ethylene glycol as protic solvent. On increasing the solvent content, the double chain compound forms a cubic and a lamellar mesophase and the triple chain compound forms a hexagonal columnar lyomesophase. The dodecyloxy substituted compounds were also investigated with respect to their behaviour as thin films at the air-water interface using a Langmuir film-balance. Different types of pi/Aisotherms were observed whereby the molecular areas at collapse were determined either by the size of the carbohydrate head group (single chain compounds) or by the number of alkyl chains (double and triple chain compound).

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209144

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The flexoelectro-optic effect in short-pitch cholesterics [1] is analysed in terms of applied electric field strengths and material parameters such as the two flexoelectric coefficients es and eb and the three elastic constants. Starting from the free energy density of the uniformly lying-helix (ULH) configuration, including the flexoelectric polarization term, the equation describing the field-induced tilt angle of the bulk optic axis is derived. It is convenient to introduce the flexoelectric “anisotropy” Deltae as the difference between the splay and bend flexoelectric coefficients, hence defined by Deltae es eb. Our results then show that Deltae is the essential material parameter controlling the sign and magnitude of the electrically induced tilt. In the region of linear approximation, the tilt is proportional to Deltae and to the electric field E, and inversely proportional to the helical wave vector k, as well as the effective elastic constant (K11 K33). The individual values of the elastic constants K11, K22 and K33 do have an influence on the magnitude of the effect, but not on its linearity. The Deltae dependence conforms in the simplest way to the physical requirement that the flexoelectro-optic effect must be particularly pronounced in the case that es and eb are of opposite sign.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209153

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Novel liquid crystalline (LC) acrylate side group copolymers, which consist of nematogenic phenyl 4-methoxybenzoate acrylate monomer (A) and novel chiral binaphthyl (BN) methacrylate monomers (MB-n) have been synthesized. The copolymers prepared differ in the spacer lengths of MB-n (n 3,5,11) and in their compositions. The homopolymers of the three new chiral binaphthyl monomers MB-n were also prepared. Copolymers with a low concentration of binaphthyl monomer units (less than 16 mol%) display a cholesteric mesophase. The induced chirality in the polymers is due to atropoisomerism (C2-symmetry) of the molecules. The helical twisting powers (beta), caused by the atropoisomeric units in the synthesized copolymers, were determined, and their temperature dependencies studied. The unusually high negative temperature coefficient of beta observed above the glass transition temperature is explained in terms of conformational changes of the BN molecules in the copolymers.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209162

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

Dielectric properties of four diols having different chemical structures of the hydrophobic part were determined by the time domain spectroscopy method in the frequency range from c. 15MHz to c. 7GHz. The static permittivity clearly reflects the changes in the position of the dipole moments in the molecules. The dielectric relaxation times characterizing the diol part of the molecules are similar for all the substances studied. In the case where the phenylthiadiazole unit is built into the alkyl chain, two well separated processes were observed: one connected with the ‘hydrophobic’ and the second with the ‘hydrophilic’ part of the molecule. This emphasizes the amphotropic character of such molecules.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209171

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor

摘要:

The shear flow induced deformation of the planar cholesteric structure is modelled numerically, taking into account long pitch flow-aligning material. Three pitch-to-thickness ratios in five configurations are considered. Unwinding of the cholesteric helix due to the flow alignment is found. This process has a threshold character, when the mid-plane director is perpendicular to the plane of shear; otherwise it is continuous. The transverse component of the flow is always present. At high stress, the director in the prevailing part of the layer is oriented at the flow-aligning angle.

ISSN:0267-8292    

DOI:10.1080/026782997209180

出版商:Taylor & Francis Group    

年代:1997

数据来源: Taylor