Uniaxially oriented films of polymer dispersed liquid crystals: Textures, optical properties and applications

Overview of authors works on uniaxially oriented films (UOF) of polymer dispersed liquid crystals (PDLC) including nematics, cholesterics and ferroelectric smectics are presented. The interference effects such as the oscillations of volt-contrast curves and the quenching of a light transmitted through the nematic PDLC are described. Exceptional behaviour of polarization efficiency revealed in sheared cholesteric PDLC films alive is discussed. We have found the electro-thermooptical hysteresis in cholesteric PDLC and proposed laser-addressed reverse information recording based on it. Structure, optical, dynamic and temperature properties of UOF PDLC based on ferroelectric smectics are presented. Using this material, a single-polarizer and three different types of polarizer-free light modulators were designed.