Mechano-Optical Properties of Cholesteric-Liquid-Crystal Elastomers with Controlled Molecular Orientation by Photopolymerization

Abstract

Chiral nematic liquid crystals (N* LCs) exhibit helically twisted molecular orientations. Based on the helical orientation, N* LC have a periodic distribution of refractive index; thus, they show unique optical properties. In this study, we found that the irradiation of a spatially patterned light to prepare the N* LC elastomer by photopolymerization induced a structure with a periodic change of in-plane refractive index, and that the obtained N* LC elastomer showed diffraction. Here, we report that the optical and mechanical properties and investigated the molecular orientation of the N* LC elastomer.