Liquid crystal Materials

Objectives:

1. To develop UV stable, high birefringence (Dn>0.4) and low viscosity liquid crystals for laser beam steering, telecom and display applications.

2. To develop high birefringence and low viscosity dual-frequency liquid crystals.

3. To develop new negative liquid crystals for display applications.

4. To develop physical models for understanding LC refractive indices and viscosities.

5. To develop new cholesteric liquid crystals for photonic applications.

Accomplishments:

1. Demonstrated new LC mixtures with figure-of-merit (K₁₁Dn²/g₁)>100 which is 20X higher than that of Merck E7.

2. Developed extended Cauchy equations for describing the wavelength- and temperature- dependent LC refractive indices.

3. Developed post-deuterated 5CB liquid crystal for IR applications (In collaboration with Prof. J. Kornfield of California Institute of Technology).

4. Developed high birefringence and low viscosity dual-frequency LC mixtures.

5. Developed dopants for enhancing the contrast ratio and FoM of negative De LCs

Team Members: Dr. Sebastian Gauza, Dr. Haiqing Xianyu, and Qiong Song.