Combined electric and photocontrol of selective light reflection at an oblique helicoidal cholesteric liquid crystal doped with azoxybenzene derivative.
Phys Rev E
; 104(4-1): 044702, 2021 Oct.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-34781517
ABSTRACT
An oblique helicoidal cholesteric liquid crystal Ch_{OH} represents a unique optical material with a single-harmonic periodic modulation of the refractive index and a pitch that can be tuned by an electric or magnetic field in a broad range from submicrometers to micrometers. In this work, we demonstrate that the oblique helicoidal cholesteric doped with azoxybenzene molecules can be tuned by both the electric field and light irradiation. The tuning mechanism is explained by the kinetics of trans-cis photoisomerization of the azoxybenzene molecules. At a fixed voltage, UV irradiation causes a redshift of the reflection peak by more than 200 nm. The effect is caused by an increase of the bend elastic constant of Ch_{OH} under irradiation. The demonstrated principle has the potential for applications such as smart windows, sensors, tunable lasers, and filters.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Base de datos:
MEDLINE
Idioma:
En
Revista:
Phys Rev E
Año:
2021
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Estados Unidos