Thermally switchable flexible liquid crystal devices in prepolymer-doped cholesteric liquid crystals

This work describes an approach for fabricating thermally switchable flexible liquid crystal devices in prepolymer-doped cholesteric liquid crystals (CLCs). The roughness of the UV-cured polymer film eliminates the stability of planar CLCs, allowing the textures in the UV-cured regions to be changed from planar to focal conic. Impurities associated with doping with prepolymers cause the clearing temperature of LCs in the UV-cured regions to differ from that in the uncured regions as the prepolymers are polymerized. Therefore, the textures in these two regions can be switched by controlling the temperature. Thermally switchable flexible LC devices, such as optically addressed smart cards, light valves, and others, can be realized using this approach.