Measuring electric-field-induced birefringence in polymer stabilized blue-phase liquid crystals based on phase shift measurements

A simple optical method to measure the electric-field-induced birefringence and Kerr constant of polymer-stabilized blue-phase liquid crystals (PSBP-LC) is demonstrated. By measuring the phase shift of PSBP-LC and the averaged refractive index of PSBP-LC at the voltage-off state, the ordinary refractive index and extraordinary refractive index of PSBP-LC as function of applied voltage can be obtained experimentally. As a result, the electric-field-induced birefringence and Kerr constant can be determined as well. The method we proposed can help in designing PSBP-LC-based photonic devices. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3583572]