Abstract
Cholesteric blue phases (BP) are recognized as a frustrated liquid crystal phase which appears in a very small temperature range between an isotropic phase and a chiral nematic phase. Recently, the remarkable expansion of temperature range of BP has been achieved for the polymer- stabilized BP. In this study, the electro-optical responses were investigated for the polymer-stabilized BP. When an electric field was applied to low molecular weight BP, the phase transition from BP to N^* occurred immediately. However, the polymer-stabilized BP could maintain their structure against an electric field. The response time of the electro-optical performances were found to be the order of 10^<-4>-10^<-5> s on the rise and decay processes at 293 K. At high temperature, the decay response time of the order of 10^<-6> s, which is unrealizable for BP without polymer component, was observed for the polymer-stabilized BP. This result might be caused by anchoring effect that is the constraining force toward LC molecules at the polymer/LC interface.
