Application of Ferroelectric Liquid Crystals to Optical Devices

Liquid crystals (LCs) are attractive for optical devices, such as lenses because of their large birefringence and high response to external field. However, the low-speed response of nematic LCs often becomes an obstacle to the progress of LC devices. In this study, we research the lens effect of ferroelectric LC by using a voltage-gradient cell. As a result, it is found that in order to obtain the lens effect in FLC, the wide cell gap, the large tilt angle and/or the large birefringence of FLC materials are necessary to increase the birefringence variation under the gradient voltage in addition to the monostabilization of FLC media.