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Photoalignment and resulting holographic vector grating formation in composites of low molecular weight liquid crystals and photoreactive liquid crystalline polymers

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Abstract

Polarization holographic gratings were formed in liquid crystal (LC) cells fabricated from a mixture of low molecular weight nematic LC and a photoreactive liquid crystalline polymer (PLCP) with 4-(4-methoxycinnamoyloxy)biphenyl side groups. The diffraction properties of the gratings were analyzed using theoretical models which were determined based on the polarization patterns of the polarization holography. The results demonstrated that vector gratings comprised of periodic orientation distributions of the LC molecule were induced in the cells based on the axis-selective photoreaction of the PLCP. The vector gratings were erased by applying a sufficiently high voltage to the cells and then were reformed with no hysteresis after the voltage was removed. This phenomenon suggested that the PLCP molecules were stabilized based on the axis-selective photocrosslink reaction and that the LC molecules were aligned by the photocrosslinked PLCP. This LC composite with axis-selective photoreactivity is useful for various optical applications, because of their stability, transparency, and response to applied voltage.

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 24760265.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical Engineering, Nagaoka University of Technology, 1603-1 Kamitomioka, Nagaoka, Niigata, 940-2188, Japan

    Tomoyuki Sasaki, Takashi Shoho, Kohei Noda & Hiroshi Ono

  2. New Products Research Department, Nissan Chemical Industries, 488-6 Suzumi, Funabashi, Chiba, 274-0052, Japan

    Kohei Goto

  3. Department of Applied Chemistry, University of Hyogo, 2167 Shosha, Himeji, Hyogo, 671-2280, Japan

    Nobuhiro Kawatsuki

Authors
  1. Tomoyuki Sasaki
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  2. Takashi Shoho
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  3. Kohei Goto
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  4. Kohei Noda
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  5. Nobuhiro Kawatsuki
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  6. Hiroshi Ono
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Correspondence to Tomoyuki Sasaki.

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Sasaki, T., Shoho, T., Goto, K. et al. Photoalignment and resulting holographic vector grating formation in composites of low molecular weight liquid crystals and photoreactive liquid crystalline polymers. Appl. Phys. B 120, 217–222 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-015-6124-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00340-015-6124-y

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