2B07 Extension of Blue Phase Temperature Range by Polymer Network

Abstract

Blue phases (BPs) are kinds of liquid crystal (LC) phases that appear in a temperature range between a chiral nematic phase and an isotropic liquid phase. Since BPs have a three-dimensional cubic structure with lattice periods of several 100 nm, they exhibit the selective Bragg reflections in the range of visible light corresponding to the cubic lattice. From the viewpoint of the application, although BPs are of interest for fast light modulators or tunable photonic crystals, it has been a problem that the temperature range of BPs is very narrow, usually less than a few K. The stabilization of BPs was achieved over a larger temperature range than 60 K (260 K-326 K) across the room temperature.