Observation of photopolymerizable cholestelic blue phase liquid crystals by transmission electron microscopy

Abstract

Cholesteric blue phase liquid crystals (BPLCs) have self-organized three-dimensional structures with lattice periods of several hundred nanometers. Because of the small periodicity, the lattice structure cannot be observed by a conventional optical microscope: while transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is capable of imaging at a significantly higher resolution than the optical microscope, it is necessary to hold the sample under vacuum environment during the observation and therefore not applicable to conventional liquid crystalline materials. In this study, we fabricated a photopolymerized film in which the molecular arrangement of BPLCs is retained and observed its structure directly via TEM.