Abstract
The Liquid crystal-fiber composite (LCFC) consists of a continuous liquid crystal in which fiber filaments are accumulated. Because of refractive index variations, an LCFC shows light scattering characteristics and hence can be used as a light valve without polarizers. In our previous study, inorganic fibers were deposited onto a glass substrate by casting a suspension of inorganic fibers and ethanol. Unfortunately the electro-optical response of the cell was somewhat slow for LCDs since a liquid crystalline flow induced by the applied voltage may give rise to the reorientation of the fibers in a LCFC cell, namely the change in the anchoring condition. In this study, we propose a simple preparation technique in which fibers are deposited onto the substrate from a suspension of inorganic fibers and aqueous solution of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA). The resultant LCFC cells exhibited shorter response time when the applied voltage was turned off. This result indicates that the fibers can be stuck on the substrate with PVA as an adhesive.
