Nematic Liquid Crystal Devices Using Extended Porous Polymer Films

Abstract

We fabricated a new guest-host liquid crystal (LC) device using extended porous polymer films. We filled the nematic LC material containing black dichroic dye (concentration; 3wt%) in two laminated porous polymer films (thickness: 7 μm, porosity: 45%), which were extended in advance, and the composite film was then sandwiched by glass substrates with transparent electrodes (no alignment film). As the LC molecules align in parallel to the extending directions of the polymer films, the two LC alignment directions in the polymer films are orthogonal. As a result of measuring the light modulation characteristics with white incidence light, we recognized that the device can modulate the no polarized incidence light.