Anchoring energies and driving voltage in LC/polymer composite films

Abstract

We investigated the effect of alkyl side chain length of polymers on anchoring strength, which was measured by high-electric-field technique, at LC/Polymer interfaces. It's turned out that anchoring strength of LC/Polymer interface decreases with increasing the length of alkyl side chain of polymers and driving voltage of PNLC made by UV irradiation of said monomers also decreases with increasing the side chain length. Moreover, when using monomer with alkyl side chain of 11 carbon atoms, we observed anchoring transition temperature in which LC alignment transferred from homogeneous to homeotropic alignment and anchoring strength drastically changed.