The Effects of Surface Conditions, Electric Field and Chirality on the Cholesteric Blue Phases

Abstract

Cholesteric blue phases (BPs) are kinds of liquid crystal phase, which have a three dimensional periodic structure of several hundreds nanometers. BPs are applicable to self-assemble photonic crystal. In this study, preparation methods to create large size monodomains of polymer-stabilized cholesteric blue phases were investigated because large single monodomains are required for applying to various optical devices such as a photonic crystal. We examined the effects of surface conditions, electric field and chirality on the cholesteric blue phases.