Wyatt, PJM orcid.org/0000-0003-3619-8023, Bailey, J, Nagaraj, M orcid.org/0000-0001-9713-1362 et al. (1 more author) (2021) A self-healing ferroelectric liquid crystal electro-optic shutter based on vertical surface-relief grating alignment. Nature Communications, 12. ISSN 2041-1723
Abstract
Ferroelectric liquid crystals remain of interest for display and spatial light modulators because they exhibit significantly faster optical response times than nematics. However, smectic layers are sensitive to shock-induced flow and are usually permanently displaced once a well-aligned sample is disrupted, rendering such devices inoperable. We introduce a vertical alignment geometry combined with a surface-relief grating to control both the smectic layer and director orientations. This mode undergoes “self-healing” of the smectic layers after disruption by shock-induced flow. Sub-millisecond switching between optically distinct states is demonstrated using in-plane electric fields. Self-healing occurs within a second after being disrupted by shock, wherein both the layer and director realign without additional external stimulus. The route to material improvements for optimised devices is discussed, promising faster spatial light modulators for high-speed adaptive optics, micro-displays for virtual/augmented reality and telecommunications with inherent shock stability.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/. |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Soft Matter Physics (Leeds) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number EPSRC (Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council) EP/S029214/1 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 15 Jul 2021 09:28 |
Last Modified: | 25 Jun 2023 22:42 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Nature Research |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s41467-021-24953-5 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:176183 |