Advances in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

124 Pages·2020·15.887 MB·English

by  Michel Mitov (editor)

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Advances in
C holesteric
Liquid Crystals
Edited by
Michel Mitov
Printed Edition of the Special Issue Published in Crystals
www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals
Advances in Cholesteric
Liquid Crystals

Advances in Cholesteric
Liquid Crystals
SpecialIssueEditor
MichelMitov
MDPI•Basel•Beijing•Wuhan•Barcelona•Belgrade
SpecialIssueEditor
MichelMitov
CentreNationaldelaRechercheScientifique
France
EditorialOffice
MDPI
St.Alban-Anlage66
4052Basel,Switzerland
ThisisareprintofarticlesfromtheSpecialIssuepublishedonlineintheopenaccessjournalCrystals
(ISSN 2073-4352) in 2019 (available at: https://www.mdpi.com/journal/crystals/specialissues/
CholestericLiquid).
Forcitationpurposes,citeeacharticleindependentlyasindicatedonthearticlepageonlineandas
indicatedbelow:
LastName,A.A.; LastName,B.B.; LastName,C.C.ArticleTitle. JournalNameYear,ArticleNumber,
PageRange.
ISBN978-3-03928-228-9(Pbk)
ISBN978-3-03928-229-6(PDF)
CoverimagecourtesyofMichelMitov.
(cid:2)c 2020bytheauthors. ArticlesinthisbookareOpenAccessanddistributedundertheCreative
Commons Attribution (CC BY) license, which allows users to download, copy and build upon
publishedarticles,aslongastheauthorandpublisherareproperlycredited,whichensuresmaximum
disseminationandawiderimpactofourpublications.
ThebookasawholeisdistributedbyMDPIunderthetermsandconditionsoftheCreativeCommons
licenseCCBY-NC-ND.
Contents
AbouttheSpecialIssueEditor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Prefaceto”AdvancesinCholestericLiquidCrystals” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
YuqiHan,YanJiangandWeiGuo
SensingCharacteristicsofSide-PolishedFiberBasedontheAlterationsinHelicalStructureof
Thermo-SensitiveCholestericLiquidCrystals
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,465,doi:10.3390/cryst9090465. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
YuedaLiu,YanLi,QuanmingChen,SidaLiandYikaiSu
LiquidCrystalBasedHead-UpDisplaywithElectricallyControlledContrastRatio
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,311,doi:10.3390/cryst9060311. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chen-Yue Li, Xiao Wang, Xiao Liang, Jian Sun, Chun-Xin Li, Shuai-Feng Zhang,
Lan-Ying Zhang, Hai-Quan Zhang and Huai Yang
Electro-Optical Properties of a Polymer Dispersed and Stabilized Cholesteric Liquid Crystals
System Constructed by a Stepwise UV-Initiated Radical/Cationic Polymerization
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,282,doi:10.3390/cryst9060282. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Mikhail N. Krakhalev, Rashid G. Bikbaev, Vitaly S. Sutormin, Ivan V. Timofeev and
Victor Ya. Zyryanov
Nematic and Cholesteric Liquid Crystal Structures in Cells with Tangential-Conical
Boundary Conditions
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,249,doi:10.3390/cryst9050249. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
ZihengWang,PardisRofouieandAlejandroD.Rey
Surface Anchoring Effects on the Formation of Two-Wavelength Surface Patterns in Chiral
LiquidCrystals
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,190,doi:10.3390/cryst9040190. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Chia-HuaYu,Po-ChangWuandWeiLee
Electro-Thermal Formation of Uniform Lying Helix Alignment in a Cholesteric Liquid
CrystalCell
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,183,doi:10.3390/cryst9040183. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
HenricusH.Wensink
EffectofSizePolydispersityonthePitchofNanorodCholesterics
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,143,doi:10.3390/cryst9030143. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
YuriYevdokimov,SergeySkuridin,ViktorSalyanov,SergeySemenovandEfimKats
Liquid-CrystallineDispersionsofDouble-StrandedDNA
Reprintedfrom:Crystals2019,9,162,doi:10.3390/cryst9030162. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
v

About the Special Issue Editor
MichelMitovisDirectorofResearchatCNRSandPrincipalInvestigatoroftheLiquidCrystalstheme
at Centre d’Elaboration de Mate´riaux et d’Etudes Structurales (CEMES) in Toulouse. His current
interestslieinthedesignandopticalpropertiesofcomplexcholestericliquidcrystalstructures(pitch
gradient, double helicity, spatially variable helical axis), and biomimetic materials inspired from
insectcarapaces. Heistheinventorofpatentsrelatedtosmartreflectivewindowstocontrolsolar
lightandheat.Hehaspublishedanessayofsciencepopularizationonsoftmatter(SensitiveMatter,
HarvardUniversityPress), andatextbookonliquidcrystalscience(Lescristauxliquides, Presses
UniversitairesdeFrance).
vii

Preface to ”Advances in Cholesteric Liquid Crystals”
Mostoftheopticalpropertiesofliquidcrystals(LCs)areduetotheirchiralstructures.Withtheir
helicalstructure,cholestericLCs(CLCs)—alsonamedchiralnematicLCs—figureprominentlyinLC
science.Theselectivereflectionoflightistheirflagshipproperty.AproperlyorientedlayerofCLCis
auniquemultifunctionalmaterial:Itis,atthesametime,reflector,notchfilter,polarizer,andoptical
rotator.
The research on CLCs often requires making a continuous description of chiral structures
andtheirpropertiesfromthenanometerrangetothemacroscopicscale. Itprovidesnaturallinks
between different disciplines in soft matter science and well beyond. It promises a myriad of
applications in the areas of sensors based on color changes, tunable bandpass filters, rewritable
colorrecordings,hyperspectralimaging,thermalprintablee-paper,polarizer-freereflectivedisplays,
lasing,microlenses,smartwindows,andmanymore. LyotropicCLCformulationsmaybechosen
fortheirbeauty,toscreenUVlight,ortoobtainiridescentvisualeffects.TheCLCstructurehasvery
far-reachingimplicationsintechnologywhichhavenotyetshowntheirfullsignificance.
TheCLCstructureisaubiquitousdesignintheanimalandplantkingdoms. Thefunctionsof
biologicalCLCsincludemaximizationofpackingefficiency,opticalinformation,radiationprotection,
andmechanicalstability. Theroleofthecholestericstructureinlivingmatterisfarfrombeingfully
defined,andmanybiomimeticreplicasarestillawaitingrealization. Thisbookisaseriesofpapers
writtenbyresearchersworkinginLCscienceandtechnology,andcoversexperimentalinvestigations,
theoreticalaspects,andapplications.Itincludesonereviewpaperonthepackingofdoublestranded
DNAmolecules[Y.Yevdokimovetal.] andsevenresearcharticlesthatmayfallintothefollowing
twogroups:
Fundamentalinvestigationsofdefects,textures,andstructures:
Experimental studies and computer simulations of director configurations and topological
defects in nematic and cholesteric layers with tangential–conical boundary conditions [M. N.
Krakhalevetal.].
Theoreticalinvestigationsabouttheroleoflengthpolydispersityonthehelicalpitchofnanorod
basedCLCswithcontinuouslengthpolydispersity[H.H.Wensink].
Mechanisms of voltage-induced changes of CLC textures by dielectric heating in the case of
pulsesshapedtoaligntheuniformlyinghelixtexture[C.-H.Yuetal.].
TheoreticalanalysisofsurfacepatternsformedatthefreesurfaceofCLCswithafocusonthe
multiple-length-scalesurfacewrinklingphenomenon[Z.Wangetal.].
Experimentalstudiesaimedatapplications:
OpticalfiberscoatedwithaCLCastemperaturesensors[Y.Hanetal.].
Head-updisplaysforimprovingautomobiledrivingsafetybasedonthedualroleofreflector
andpolarizerofCLCs[Y.Liuetal.].
CLC materials for field-induced opaque-to-transparent smart windows made of a hybrid
associationofpolymer-dispersedandpolymer-stabilizedLCmorphologies[C.-Y.Lietal.].
I hope that reading this set of contributions proves to be an enjoyable and illuminating
experience.
MichelMitov
SpecialIssueEditor
ix