This PDF file contains the front matter associated with SPIE Proceedings Volume 9940, including the Title Page, Copyright information, Table of Contents, Introduction (if any), and Conference Committee listing.

We demonstrate an array of the Fabry-Perot (FP) resonators with a liquid crystal polymer (LCP) layer inside each resonant cavity for image selection by polarization of the incident light. In our approach, the LCP molecules in the array of the FP resonators for different images are photo-aligned in different directions. Under unpolarized light, no image is observed. For the incident light polarized parallel to the photo-alignment direction, only the image corresponding to the polarization state among the recorded images is visible due to the difference in the effective refractive index between different image regions in the array of the FP resonators. Our approach based on anisotropic FP resonators will be useful for the realization of highly efficient and low-cost anti-counterfeiting systems and security labels.

We have proposed a hybrid alignment nematic (HAN) liquid crystal cell using a polymer stabilized (PS) technology. The cell shows a reverse mode scattering property. The PS-HAN cell is transparent at any viewing angle in the off-state and has an asymmetrical scattering property at incident angles in the on-state. Applying the cell to a smart glass, it cell can selectively scatter a midday sunlight with a function of window blinds. In this study, two polymerization processes, an irradiation with UV light from planar and vertical aligned sides of the cell have been investigated. UV penetration depth has also been estimated from planar and vertical aligned sides of the cell. LC materials with different UV absorption spectra were prepared. A driving voltage, an optical property and a polymer morphology were measured in PS-HAN cells. The UV intensity profile have an effect on polymer density and particle size, which changed the driving voltage and the light scattering property in the PS-HAN cell. The study on the UV penetration in the polymer stabilized technology can improve their performance.

Three-dimensional (3D) display technology has been studied actively because it can offer more realistic images compared to the conventional 2D display. Various psychological factors such as accommodation, binocular parallax, convergence and motion parallax are used to recognize a 3D image. For glass-type 3D displays, they use only the binocular disparity in 3D depth cues. However, this method cause visual fatigue and headaches due to accommodation conflict and distorted depth perception. Thus, the hologram and volumetric display are expected to be an ideal 3D display. Holographic displays can represent realistic images satisfying the entire factors of depth perception. But, it require tremendous amount of data and fast signal processing. The volumetric 3D displays can represent images using voxel which is a physical volume. However, it is required for large data to represent the depth information on voxel. In order to simply encode 3D information, the compact type of depth fused 3D (DFD) display, which can create polarization distributed depth map (PDDM) image having both 2D color image and depth image is introduced. In this paper, a new volumetric 3D display system is shown by using PDDM image controlled by polarization controller. In order to introduce PDDM image, polarization states of the light through spatial light modulator (SLM) was analyzed by Stokes parameter depending on the gray level. Based on the analysis, polarization controller is properly designed to convert PDDM image into sectioned depth images. After synchronizing PDDM images with active screens, we can realize reconstructed 3D image. Acknowledgment This work was supported by ‘The Cross-Ministry Giga KOREA Project’ grant from the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, Korea

In this paper we outline that light-induced effects in liquid crystals are still able to provide scientific and technological novelty in spite of a long time investigation started more than thirty years ago. Here we review some recent achievements related to new phenomena that have been studied in the past few years. In the first part of our report we discuss optical trapping of nematic colloids whose origin relies on the elastic properties of liquid crystals rather than on the field gradient that is on the basis of conventional optical tweezing. In the second part we present some recent results obtained in studying the self-phase modulation in bent core nematic liquid crystals, pointing out a peculiar two regimes behavior.

The fourth generation optics (4G optics) enables the realization of novel optical components (lenses, gratings, vector vortices, etc.) by patterning the optical axis orientation in the plane of an anisotropic film. Such components exhibit near 100% diffraction efficiency for wavelengths meeting half-wave retardation condition. In this framework, we have advanced a step-forward by realizing different diffractive waveplates (DWs) with arbitrary spatial patterns of the optical axis orientation by exploiting the capability of a Digital Spatial Light Polarization Converter (DSLPC). The DSLPC is based on a reflective, high resolution Spatial Light Modulator (SLM) combined with an “ad hoc” optical setup. The most attractive feature of the use of a DSLPC for photoalignment is that the orientation of the alignment layer, and therefore of the fabricated liquid crystal (LC) or liquid crystal polymer (LCP) DWs, can be specified on a pixel-by-pixel basis. By varying the optical magnification or de-magnification between the SLM and the alignment layer, the spatial resolution of the photoaligned layer can be adjusted to be optimal for each application. We show that with a simple “click” it is possible to record different high resolution optical components as well as arbitrary patterns ranging from lenses to invisible and even dual labels.

We have investigated the pretilt angle of liquid crystals generated by photoalignment layers of polyimide containing azobenzene in the backbone structure (Azo-PI). Three different photoalignment layers were prepared by performing or not performing alkylamine vapor treatment on the precursor (polyamic acid: Azo-PAA) films. Octadecyamine (ODA) and N,N-dimethylhexadecylamine (DMHDA) were used as a primary and a tertiary alkylamines, respectively. When unpolarized light irradiation of 114 J/cm² was performed at an angle of incidence of 45°, the pretilt angles generated by the conventional (without alkylamine vapor treatment), ODA-treated, and DMHDA-treated photoalignment layers were 1.4°, 19°, and 4.3°, respectively. From these results, we found that the pretilt angle generated by Azo-PI photoalignment layers increased by performing alkylamine vapor treatment but the degree of increase strongly depended on the class of alkylamine. To understand the increase in the pretilt angle by the alkylamine vapor treatments, the alignment behaviour of the Azo-PAA (PI) backbone structure in each preparation step was examined and discussed.

Recently, low-frequency driving of a display panel to reduce the power consumption has drawn much attention, especially in mobile devices. In case a liquid crystal display panel is driven by a fringe-field at a low frequency, the image flickering phenomenon can be observed when the sign of the applied electric field is reversed. Image flicker can be eliminated simply by applying a bias voltage to a liquid crystal cell so that the transmittance during the positive frame is the same as that during the negative frame. However, it may be difficult to employ this technique for practical applications because it requires a bias voltage that is dependent on the gray level. In this talk, we introduce methods to eliminate the image flicker by controlling the material parameters of liquid crystals, such as the flexoelectric anisotropy and the dielectric anisotropy. Methods to eliminate image flicker without controlling the material parameters, such as driving by a bipolar wave and optimization of the electrode spacing, are also introduced.

As opposed to most fluorophores that suffer from aggregation-caused quenching (ACQ), aggregation-induced emissive luminogens (AIEgens) possess very weak fluorescence in solution, but show strong emission upon aggregation due to restriction of intramolecular motion (RIM). Since AIEgens are often comprised of propeller-shaped structures, i.e. polyphenylsiloles or tetraphenylethylene (TPE), the attachment of chiral units has recently proven a powerful tool to fabricate chiral AIEgens exhibiting strong circularly-polarized luminescence (CPL) signal upon aggregation. Different chiral moieties lead to various assembled structures, such as helical nanoribbons, superhelical ropes, hollow and solid micro-/nanospheres. Generally, these structures exhibit enhanced chiroptical properties when compared to their monomeric counterpart. In this context, we report on the tetraphenylsilole and TPE derivatives with side-chains bearing an enantiomerically pure chiral units readily assembled into superhelical ropes upon aggregation, which displayed large CPL dissymmetry factors (g_em) of –0.32 – a record for purely organic chiral materials.

Liquid crystal (LC) is the promising material for the fabrication of high-performance soft, flexible devices. The fascinating and useful properties arise from their cooperative effect that inherently allows the macroscopic integration and control of molecular alignment through various external stimuli. To date, light-matter interaction is the most attractive stimuli and researchers developed photoalignment through photochemical or photophysical reactions triggered by linearly polarized light. Here we show the new choice based on molecular diffusion by photopolymerization. We found that photopolymerization of a LC monomer and a crosslinker through a photomask enables to direct molecular alignment in the resultant LC polymer network film. The key generating the molecular alignment is molecular diffusion due to the difference of chemical potentials between irradiated and unirradiated regions. This concept is applicable to various shapes of photomask and two-dimensional molecular alignments can be fabricated depending on the spatial design of photomask. By virtue of the inherent versatility of molecular diffusion in materials, the process would shed light on the fabrication of various high-performance flexible materials with molecular alignment having controlled patterns.

Light-controllable azobenzene materials have a remarkable potential for micro- and nanotechnologies as patterning templates, sensors, micropumps and actuators. The photoisomerization between trans and cis states of azo-chromophores is the primary source of photodeformation in azo-polymers. The direction of deformation can be controlled by the light polarization. In our analytical and computer simulation studies, description of the light-induced anisotropy is simplified by applying effective orientation potential to the trans isomers orienting them perpendicular to the light polarization. Using coarse-grained modelling we proved that effective potential approximates well the reorientation of trans isomers under linearly polarized light. The proposed orientation approach is quite promising. It allows not only the explanation of the sign and magnitude of photodeformation in azo-polymers with diverse chemical architecture and topology, but also the prediction of new effects, such as appearance of biaxial deformation in liquid crystal (LC) azo-polymers. A rich behavior is predicted for two-component polymer networks containing azobenzenes and non-chromophoric LC mesogens. Whether such two-component network expands or contracts with respect to the light polarization, depends on the art of attachment of the mesogens to the network strands.

In 1931, French astronomer Bernard Lyot suggested that placing a beam stop in the center of the Fourier plane of a telescope allows observing faint objects nearby on-axis bright sources. This opened a new chapter in astronomical imaging called coronagraphy. Since then various techniques have been proposed and implemented experimentally. In particular, it was shown that pure phase masks, instead of amplitude ones, is an efficient way to reject on-axis light. Since one decade, there is a growing interest in spiraling phase (optical vortex) masks that may create of a nodal area at the exit pupil plane of the telescope outside which on-axis light is rejected. Such optical vortex coronagraphy implies the development of singular phase masks endowed with well defined topological properties. To this aim, nowadays nanofabrication tools are a prime choice, which includes liquid crystal photo-alignment technology. Here we show that spontaneously occurring liquid crystal topological defects offer a smart alternative to optical vortex phase masks. Our first experimental smart coronagraphy observations will be presented and discussed.

Directed assembly of nanoparticles is a promising alternative for original nanoparticle organizations. New kinds of optical properties are expected when semi-conductive or metallic nanoparticles are concerned. Using liquid crystal matrices oriented by their interfaces, it is possible to induce anisotropic nanoparticle organizations. We can then investigate the influence of these matrices on the optical properties of the nanoparticles. I will show how to create hierarchical arrays of oriented topological defects in thin smectic films that act as efficient traps for a specific localization and orientation of nanoparticles [1]. I will show how specific nanoparticle assemblies can be obtained, depending on the nanoparticle size and shape. Fluorescent nanorods trapped in smectic dislocations become strictly oriented along a single direction, providing, a fine control of the polarization of the emmitted single photons [2]. Similarly the orientation of gold nanorods leads to the control of their luminescence as well as of their plasmon resonance by light polarization. I will show that, when the nanoparticle concentration is increased, single chains are formed, and can lead to a strong anisotropic electromagnetic coupling between the particles [3]. We are not only capable of linearly confining the particles, but also of varying the inter-particle interactions and thus modifing their optical properties which are sensitive to the inter-particle distance [4]. [1] D. Coursault, Soft Matter 12 (2016) 629. [2] L. Pelliser et al, Adv. Funct. Mat. 25 (2015) 1719. [3] D. Coursault et al., Adv. Mat. 24 (2012) 1461. [4] D. Coursault et al., ACSNano 9 (2015) 11678.

Liquid crystal cells with LiNbO₃:Fe crystals as substrates, are described. The photovoltaic field generated by the substrates is able to reorient the liquid crystal director thus giving rise to a phase shift on the light propagating through the cell, as in liquid crystal light valves. The process does not require the application of an external electric field, thus being potentially useful for applications requiring a high degree of compactness. A detailed characterization of several cells based on lithium niobate crystals with different iron concentration has been carried out. The correlation between the LiNbO₃:Fe characteristics and the liquid crystal reorientation is also discussed.

Plasmonic structural color has recently garnered significant interest as an alternative to the organic dyes standard in print media and liquid crystal displays. These nanostructured metallic systems can produce diffraction limited images, be made polarization dependent, and exhibit resistance to color bleaching. Perhaps even more advantageous, their optical characteristics can also be tuned, post-fabrication, by altering the surrounding media's refractive index parallel to the local plasmonic fields. A common material with which to achieve this is liquid crystal. By reorienting the liquid crystal molecules through external electric fields, the optical resonances of the plasmonic filters can be dynamically controlled. Demonstrations of this phenomenon, however, have been limited to modest shifts in plasmon resonance. Here, we report a liquid crystal-plasmonic system with an enhanced tuning range through the use of a shallow array of nano-wells and high birefringent liquid crystal. The continuous metallic nanostructure maximizes the overlap between plasmonic fields and liquid crystal while also allowing full reorientation of the liquid crystal upon an applied electric field. Sweeping over structural dimensions and voltages results in a color palette for these dynamic reflective pixels that can further be exploited to create color tunable images. These advances make plasmonic-liquid crystal systems more attractive candidates for filter, display, and other tunable optical technologies.

Liquid crystals materials have the advantage of having a large nonlinear coefficient, but the response time is slow, normally up to several minisecond. This makes it is hard to apply in ultra fast optical devices. Recently, fentosecond (fs) nonlinear effect in choleteric liquid crystals is reported, nonlinear coefficient in the scale of 10−12 cm2∕W is achieved. Base on this effect, in this work, fentosecond pulse compression technique in a miniature choleteric liquid crystal is demonstrated1,2. Cholesteric liquid crystals (CLC) is a kind of 1-dimensional phontonic structure with helical periodic. In a 10 μm thick CLC, femtosecond pulse with 100 fs is compressed to about 50 fs. CLC sample in planar texture with 500μm thick cell gap is further fabricated. In this sample, femtosecond pulse with 847 fs can be compressed to 286 fs. Due to the strong dispersion at the edge of photonic band gap, femtosecond pulse stretching and compensation can be achieve. In this experiment, laser pulse with duration 90 fs is stretched to above 2 picosecond in the first CLC sample and re-compressed to 120 fs in the second sample. Such technique might be applied in chirp pulse amplification. In conclusion, we report ultra fast nonlinear effect in cholesteric liquid crystals. Due to the strong dispersion and nonlinearity of CLC, femtosecond pulse manipulating devices can be achieved in the scale of micrometer.

The texture observation has long been the core technique in liquid crystal (LC)-based bioassays. Its working principle stems from the dark-to-bright texture change induced by the interruption of the initially homeotropic alignment in nematic bulks or from the radial-to-bipolar configuration transition in LC droplets in the presence of biomolecules. One of the drawbacks of this observational scheme, which requires a polarizing optical microscope, is the difficulty in quantitative analysis. In this invited paper, we report on our recent development of alternative optical biosensing techniques based on cholesteric LCs (CLCs) without the use of a polarizer. The increase in structural order in a vertically anchored CLC cell in the quasi-planar state provides a means to allow detection and quantification of the concentration of biomolecules immobilized on the interface between the mesophase and the surfactant DMOAP for LC vertical alignment.

The manipulation and processing of light beams can be efficiently accomplished through devices based on soft matter placed in a hybrid “symbiosis” with other organic or inorganic, photoresponsive materials. The performance of such smart modulating systems often relies on a subtle balance between individual properties of each component, together with the varying interaction between organic and inorganic elements. Some promising demonstrations in the visible as well as in the THz regimes include liquid crystals integrated with plasmonic or ferroelectric nanoparticles, photoconductive or photosensitive polymers as well as metamaterials. They offer adaptive, flexible and tailor-made solutions for applications in displays and optoelectronics, switching, steering and modulating electromagnetic waves. Hybrid configurations that include multiple photoresponsive layers, sandwiched with liquid crystals, led to stronger modulation and steering of light beams in the visible. Such effects can also be observed in the other regions of spectrum, as inorganic nanoparticles dispersed in liquid crystals modify the magnitude of the material refractive indices measured in THz. The development of such hybrid materials has to be accompanied by comprehensive characterisation of their uniformity, stability and optical quality across the whole surface of the device, capable of determining their optical, electrical and physical parameters.

Photo-addressed liquid crystal media allow realizing optical phase detection based on self-adaptive holographic processes. Examples are reported of adaptive holographic systems based on optically addressed liquid crystal spatial light modulators. Owing to the physical mechanisms involved, such liquid crystal based adaptive interferometers adapt to slow phase variations, thus filtering out low frequency noise while transmitting the phase modulations at higher frequencies. This method permits measuring small phase modulations in noisy environments and with distorted and speckled wavefronts. The basic principles of the adaptive interferometer are presented, then, the association with an optical fiber is shown to realize a new class of distributed optical fiber sensors.

Recent upsurge on virtual and augmented realities (VR and AR) has re-ignited the interest to the immerse display technology. The VR/AR technology based on stereoscopic display is believed in its early stage as glasses-free, or autostereoscopic display, will be ultimately adopted for the viewing convenience, visual comfort and for the multi-viewer purposes. On the other hand, autostereoscopic display has not yet received positive market response for the past years neither with stereoscopic displays using shutter or polarized glasses. We shall present the analysis on the real-world applications, rigid user demand, the drawbacks to the existing barrier- and lenticular lens-based LCD autostereoscopy. We shall emphasize the emerging autostereoscopic display, and notably on directional backlight LCD technology using a hybrid spatial- and temporal-control scenario. We report the numerical simulation of a display system using Monte-Carlo ray-tracing method with the human retina as the real image receiver. The system performance is optimized using newly developed figure of merit for system design. The reduced crosstalk in an autostereoscopic system, the enhanced display quality, including the high resolution received by the retina, the display homogeneity without Moiré- and defect-pattern, will be highlighted. Recent research progress including a novel scheme for diffraction-free backlight illumination, the expanded viewing zone for autostereoscopic display, and the novel Fresnel lens array to achieve a near perfect display in 2D/3D mode will be introduced. The experimental demonstration will be presented to the autostereoscopic display with the highest resolution, low crosstalk, Moiré- and defect- pattern free.

Recently, we demonstrated large magnitude tuning (1500nm) of reflection band in polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystals (PSCLCs) formulated with negative dielectric anisotropy (negative ) liquid crystals with low polymer content (~5% by wt.). Evidence suggests an ionic charge (cation) trapping mechanism by the polymer network which subjects the material system to pitch expansion near the positive electrode and pitch compression near the negative electrode resulting in a nonlinear pitch variation throughout the cell thickness when under the influence of a direct current (DC) field. Thus far this effect has only observed PDLC systems with near zero and negative dielectric anisotropies. In general, the field interaction in systems with negative  stabilize the cholesteric structure as the field strength increases while those systems with positive become are dominated by higher fields becoming homeotropic. Here we explore a PSCLC system with a positive  that suppresses the Fréedericksz transition to homeotropic at low field strengths allowing for a unique combination of switching and tuning of the reflection band. This kind of electro-optical control of the reflection band in PSCLCs may have potential use as optical filters, display technologies, telecommunications and tunable lasers.

Transport of fluids and particles at the microscale is an important theme both in fundamental and applied science. We demonstrate how an advanced approach to photo-induced alignment of liquid crystals can be used to generate nonlinear electrokinetics. The photoalignment technique is based on irradiation of a photosensitive substrate with light through nanoaperture arrays in metal films. The resulting pattern of surface alignment induces predesigned 2D and 3D distortions of local molecular orientation. In presence of a static electric field, these distortions generate spatial charge and drive electrokinetic flows of the new type, in which the velocities depend on the square of the applied electric field. The patterned liquid crystal electrolyte converts the electric energy into the flows and transport of embedded particles of any type (fluid, solid, gaseous) along a predesigned trajectory, posing no limitation on the electric nature (charge, polarizability) of these particles and interfaces. The patterned liquid crystal electrolyte induces persistent vortices of controllable rotation speed and direction that are quintessential for micro- and nanoscale mixing applications.

Liquid crystals are a new type of organic semiconductors exhibiting molecular orientation in self-organizing manner, and have high potential for device applications. In fact, various device applications have been proposed so far, including photosensors, solar cells, light emitting diodes, field effect transistors, and so on.. However, device performance in those fabricated with liquid crystals is less than those of devices fabricated with conventional materials in spite of unique features of liquid crystals. Here we discuss how we can utilize the liquid crystallinity in organic transistors and how we can overcome conventional non-liquid crystalline organic transistor materials. Then, we demonstrate high performance organic transistors fabricated with a smectic E liquid crystal of Ph-BTBT-10, which show high mobility of over 10cm2/Vs and high thermal durability of over 200oC in OFETs fabricated with its spin-coated polycrystalline thin films.

The interest in liquid crystal devices for photonic non-display devices has grown recently due to their mature quality and the continuous improvement of their speed combined with the rising nanoscale and optoelectronic technologies. Of particular interest is their application in imaging systems as compact devices to manipulate the wavefront, wavelength, phase or polarization. Recently we have been developing variety of specially designed LC devices integrated into imaging systems for specific spectro-polarimetric imaging applications using small number of LC devices. These included: (i) wide dynamic range tunable filters for hyperspectral imaging and frequency domain optical coherence tomography, (ii) discrete narrowband tunable filter for multispectral imaging, (iii) compact polarization rotator for polarimetric imaging, (v) wideband achromatic waveplate for polarimetric camera, (vii) polarization independent LCFP tunable filter, and lately (vii) single LC retarder for hyperspectral imaging. In this report we shall present the main concepts of these devices and their functionality into spectro-polarimetric imaging systems such as in skin cancer diagnosis, and imaging oximetry [1-4]. Selected Publications: 1. S. Isaacs et.al, Applied Optics 53, H91-H101 (2014). 2. M. AbuLeil et.al., Optics Letter 39, 5487-90 (2014). 3. I. August, et.al., Scientific Reports, communicated 2016. 4. M. AbuLeil et.al., in preparation.

Mesomorphic metal alkanoates is very promising yet overlooked class of nonlinear-optical materials. Metal alkanoates can exhibit a broad variety of condensed states of matter including solid crystals, plastic crystals, lyotropic and thermotropic ionic liquid crystals, liquids, mesomorphic glasses, and Langmuir–Blodgett films. Glass-forming properties of metal alkanoates combined with their use as nano-reactors and anisotropic host open up simple and efficient way to design various photonic nanomaterials. Despite very interesting physics, the experimental data on optical and nonlinearoptical properties of such materials are scarce. The goal of the present paper is to fill the gap by discussing recent advances in the field of photonic materials made of metal alkanoates, organic dyes, and nanoparticles. Optical and nonlinear-optical properties of the following materials are reviewed: (i) mesomorphic glass doped with organic dyes; (ii) smectic glass composed of cobalt alkanoates; (iii) semiconductor nanoparticles embedded in a glassy host; (iv) metal nanoparticles - glass (the cobalt octanoate) nanocomposites.

There is a great increase of interest in the nematic defect structures, where interplay of confinement, elasticity, anchoring, and chirality leads to complex ordering fields with singular topological defects and nonsingular solitonic deformations. Beside numerous advanced microscopy techniques, the standard polarized optical microscopy is still an elementary first-to-take tool in use. To fully capture its potential and understand the limitations in unveiling the details of complex structures, we apply a recently extended Jones matrix approach based on ray-tracing that allows to include also effects of focusing and numerical aperture. The approach is illustrated with results of recent studies of cholesteric droplets.

The molecular interaction sometimes propagates in a collective manner, reaching for a long distance on the order of millimeters. Such interactions have been well known in the field of strongly-correlated electron systems in a beautiful crystal interleaved by donor and acceptor layers, induced by photo-stimulus. The other examples can be found in liquid crystals (LCs), which could be found in many places in nature such as bio-membrane. Different from crystals, LCs features “softness”, which enables it to be a curved structure such as a cell. In LCs, even a small molecular change would trigger the overall structural change by the propagation of the molecular interaction. Here we will show, for the first time, how long and how fast the molecular interaction propagates in LCs. The patterned phase transition was induced in a LC, causing the phase transition propagation in a controlled way and the propagation was measured with an time-resolved optical technique, called the transient grating. A LC sample doped with azobenzene was put into a thermally controlled LC cell. A grating pattern of a pulse light with 355 nm was impinged to the LC cell, and the light was absorbed by the dyes, releasing heat or photomechanical motion. We could observe the fringe spacing dependence on the phase transition response, which indicates that phase transition was delayed as the fringe spacing due to the delay by the phase transition propagation. This is the first direct evidence of the molecular interaction propagation of the LC molecules.

A low f /# lens and zoom lens system based on Pancharatnam phase are presented. The design, fabrication, and characterization of these devices are shown. The unique characteristics of these devices is made possible by the use of azo-dye photoalignment to align reactive mesogens. The wavelength dependence on the image quality is evaluated and shown to be satisfactory from red light to near infrared machine vision systems. A demonstration device is shown with a 4x zoom ratio.

The helical nanofilament (HNF) liquid crystal (LC) phase of bent core mesogens (also commonly termed the B4 phase) is among the most unique and exotic LC phases known. The structure involves a spontaneous hierarchical self assembly of molecules leading to a supramolecular twisted rod structure with a square cross section approximately 30 nm on a side, with the length of the filaments unconstrained. Based upon solid state NMR data, we have proposed that the helical nanofilaments actually represents an unusual assembly of organic crystalline nanoparticles, which form an LC phase, in the case of NOBOW existing in the temperature range between about 150°C and 110°C, which becomes a glass at temperatures below 110°C. That is, the HMF phase is not a typical molecular LC, but an LC of nanocrystals. Descriptions of the structure of these nanoparticles, their LC phases, and approaches to alignment will be given. Also, the fascinating and potentially useful behavior of the HNF phase as a host for other materials (LC and non-LC) in nanostructured composites will be presented.

Blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) has been attractive for display and photonic applications for its sub-millisecond response time, no need for surface alignment, and an optically isotropic dark state. Because of these advantages, diffractive devices based on blue phase liquid crystals have great potential for wide applications. In this work, we present several BPLC diffractive devices. The operation principles, fabrication and experimental measurements will be discussed in details for two BPLC gratings realized by holographic method and a BPLC Fresnel lens using a spatial light modulator projector. All of these devices exhibit several attractive features such as sub-millisecond response, relatively high spatial resolution and polarization-independence.

Dye-sensitized solar cells (DSSCs) are a type of organic solar cell often cited for their high efficiency and easy fabrication. Recent studies have shown that modification of the standard liquid electrolyte DSSC architecture by the changing one of the components or the addition of additives often results in the improvement in one of the photovoltaic parameters and hence the overall efficiency. Here we explore a dielectric liquid crystal material which is a known insulator but possesses a high degree of order and optical anisotropy. In the presence of an applied electric field, the equilibrium of positive and negative charges are displaced in opposite directions. In this work, different mixtures with different dielectric anisotropies ranging from negative, zero and positive are formulated. These mixtures are then used to prepare polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) electrolytes and subsequently DSSC devices based on these PDLC electrolytes are fabricated. The morphology of the PDLC is observed through polarizing optical microscopy (POM) and the electrical/photovoltaic characterizations are performed through current density-voltage (J-V) measurements and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

The first reported SmAPF phase, formed from the bent core mesogen W586, exhibits interesting and useful electrooptics.(1) Specifically, in teflon-aligned cells, upon application of an electric field, modulation of the birefringence is observed without rotation of the apparent optic axis. In addition, optical latching is observed, providing the long sought but never before seen “infinitely multistable" ferroelectric LC electrooptic switch. Based upon careful measurements of the cell behavior, the polar order parameter at temperatures just above the transition to a lower-lying smectic phase is close to unity. This suggested potential application of the phase as a host for controlled polar alignment of guest molecules. One clear application of the system is for electronic electrooptic modulation of light at telecommunications wavelengths (Kerr effect), which can be obtained in materials with polar orientation of visible dyes. Background and results of recent experiments in the host-guest chemistry of the W586 SmAPF phase, showing good orientation of designed NLO dyes, will be presented. (1) a) Reddy, R. A.; Zhu, C.; Shao, R.; Korblova, E.; Gong, T.; Shen, Y.; Garcia, E.; Glaser, M. A.; Maclennan, J. E.; Walba, D. M.; Clark, N. A. "Spontaneous ferroelectric order in a bent-core smectic liquid crystal of fluid orthorhombic layers," Science 2011, 332, 72-77. b) Korblova, E.; Walba, D.; Gong, T.; Reddy, A.; Zhu, C.; Shao, R.; Maclennan, J.; Glaser, M.; Clark, N. "Design and synthesis of an achiral ferroelectric smectic liquid crystal," Proc. SPIE 2011, 8114, (1), 81140X-1 - 81140X-9. (2) United States Patent: Walba US 9,187,500 B2, Nov. 17, 2015

Electro-optic (EO) modulation of the amplitude and phase of electromagnetic waves using liquid crystals (LCs) is commonplace in the optical and infrared regions. This effort has led to commercially available components used in spectral filtering, polarization management, beam steering, transmitters, displays, etc. However, electro-optic techniques have had limited success in the terahertz (THz) region due to several practical design challenges. The growth in applications has led to an interest in the development of a spatial light modulator (SLM) for the terahertz region. In the visible region, the most common SLMs use electro-optic materials such as liquid crystals to spatially modulate a beam. However, this approach to achieve a practical SLM in the terahertz regime has been difficult. The primary barrier for components is the long interaction lengths required to modulate a THz wave. Since the EO modulation depth is directly proportional to the multiplication of the change of permittivity and the ratio of interaction length over wavelength, THz systems with wavelengths ranging from 150 μm to 1mm pose a challenge. To overcome this barrier, longitudinal stratified sub-wavelength liquid crystal structures have been engineered and fabricated. The stratified structures introduce the challenge in the selection and design of the electrodes. By using multiple layers the tunable films can be maintained at manageable thicknesses (25 to 200 μm). The reduced individual film thickness will significantly improve the requisite drive voltage and response time. However, the layered structure with multiple conducting layers adds considerable challenges to the design of the transparent electrode. Both simulation and experimental data will be presented.

Utilizing the spin degree of freedom breaks new ground for designing photonic devices. Seeking out a suitable platform for flexible steering of photonic spin states is a critical task. In this work, we demonstrate a versatile Liquid crystal (LC) based platform for manipulating photonic spin and orbital states. Owing to the photoalignment technique, the local and fine tuning of the LC medium is effectively implemented to form various anisotropic microstructures. The light-matter interaction in the corresponding medium is tailored to control the evolution of photonic spin states. The physical mechanism of such a system is investigated, and the corresponding dynamical equation is obtained. The high flexibility endows the LC-based photonic system with great value to be used for Hamiltonian engineering. As an illustration, the optical analogue of intrinsic spin Hall effect (SHE) in electronic systems is presented. The pseudospins of photons are driven to split by the anisotropic effective magnetic field arising from the inhomogeneous spin-orbit interaction (SOI) in the twisting microstructures. In virtue of the designability of the LC-based platform, the form of the interaction Hamiltonian is regulated to present diverse PSHE phenomena, which is hard to be realized in the solid electronic systems. Some representative samples are prepared for experimental observation, and the results are in good agreement with theoretical predictions. We believe the tunable LC system may shed new light on future photonic quantum applications.

Liquid crystal (LC) phase of inorganic nanosheets is fascinating system in the field of condensed matter physics and for potential applications in many fields. In this lecture, I present my research on the LC nanosheet colloids derived from clay minerals, layered niobates, layered titnates, and layered perovskites. Structural analyses by small angle X-ray scattering and confocal laser scanning microscopy reveals not only meso-scale lamellar or nematic structures in the LC phase but also fractal-like porous structures. In that structure, the nanosheets show translational and rotational Brownian motions as revealed by fast-scanning confocal microscopy. The structure is tunable by many factors such as nanosheet concentration, nanosheet lateral size, salt concentration, solvent, counter cations, and charge density of the nanosheets. Some optimized systems show variable structural colors which will be useful for color materials and sensor devices. Under ac-electric field, the orientation of the nanosheets and LC domain is easily controllable; the electric field response is applicable for fabrication of electro-optic devices and formation of anisotropic composite materials. Among many future applications, inorganic nanosheet/ polymer composites with precisely controllable hierarchical structure are fascinating. We synthesized a cm-scale mono-domain gel of exfoliated LC clay/polymer composite. The gel is printable with a dye and the colored part shows photo-induced anomalous deformation behavior, which will be applicable as chemical actuators. 

This presentation comprises two topics, both relating to the interplay of light and order in liquid-crystalline (LC) materials. Firstly, we will present a novel series of azobenzene-based, halogen-bonded supramolecular LCs, with rich photochemical phenomena and exhibiting both reversible photochemical crystal-to-isotropic and LC-to-isotropic phase transitions. Simultaneous analysis of light-induced changes in birefringence, absorption, and optical scattering allowed us to conclude that less than 4 % of the mesogenic units in the cis-form suffices to trigger the LC-to-isotropic phase transition. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first quantitative analysis of the phase transition process in supramolecular liquid crystals, demonstrating the versatility of these materials as functional liquid-crystalline assemblies and pinpointing their potential towards building supramolecular actuators. Secondly, we propose a conceptually novel approach to enhance the orientational optical nonlinearity of dye-doped LCs, based on polymer stabilization. Compared to azobenzene-triggered photochemical systems, photophysical systems, where the alignment change is caused by light-induced torques due to absorbing moieties, may provide some benefits, allowing for molecular reorientation only above certain threshold intensity, and reducing reorientation instabilities and fluctuations in the photostationary state. In addition to decreasing the light intensity at which self-phase modulation takes place, the polymer stabilization approach may open up a pathway towards all-optical realization of temporally stable photonic elements and guided-wave structures based on LC systems.

The thickness of functional layers in liquid crystal photonics devices is negligibly small compared to the substrates. New opportunities provided by multilayer 4G optical systems require minimizing the thickness of each layer. We report about our progress made by developing technology of thin flexible substrates, functional polymer films, solid electro-optical layers, and graphene oxide based electro-conductive coatings.

Surface plasmons in graphene possess stronger mode confinement and lower propagation loss. One way to excite the surface plasmons is placing a periodic array of graphene nano-ribbons on top of a dielectric substrate. However once the system is fabricated it is not possible to change its optical properties. Liquid crystals (LC) are a uniaxial medium with an optical axis easily controlled by external stimuli. We suggest tuning the surface plasmons in an array of graphene ribbons by placing a LC slab on top of the ribbons. A voltage applied to the LC layer shifts the graphene ribbons plasmonic notch and changes its depth.

A chiral beamsplitter is an optical component that can split left- and right-handed circularly polarized light into orthogonal direction. Unlike a widely used linearly-polarized beamsplitter, realization of chiral beamsplitter by laser fabricated-gyroid crystal is just recently reported. However, due to its low circular dichroism ratio and limitation of applicable light wavelength which couldn't be reduced further below microwave region, chiral beamsplitter is still far from real application. Here we approach differently by using liquid crystalline cholesteric blue phases (BPs) which possess self-alignment 3D chiral structures. Our chiral beam splitters based on BPs achieved high circular dichroism extinction ratio and could become a useful component for developing integrated circuit especially in visible wavelength and UV region. Finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations were also performed along with experiments to support our hypothesis.

Direct Laser Writing (DLW) by two-photon photopolymerization (TPP) enables the fabrication of micron-scale polymeric structures in soft matter systems. The technique has implications in a broad range of optics and photonics; in particular fast-switching liquid crystal (LC) modes for the development of next generation display technologies. In this paper, we report two different methodologies using our TPP-based fabrication technique. Two explicit examples are provided of voltage-dependent LC director profiles that are inherently unstable, but which appear to be promising candidates for fast-switching photonics applications. In the first instance, ~1 μm-thick periodic walls of polymer network are written into a planar aligned (parallel rubbed) nematic pi-cell device containing a nematic LC-monomer mixture. The structures are fabricated when the device is electrically driven into a fast-switching nematic LC state and aberrations induced by the device substrates are corrected for by virtue of the adaptive optics elements included within the DLW setup. Optical polarizing microscopy images taken post-fabrication reveal that polymer walls oriented perpendicular to the rubbing direction promote the stability of the so-called optically compensated bend mode upon removal of the externally applied field. In the second case, polymer walls are written in a nematic LC-optically adhesive glue mixture. A polymer- LCs-polymer-slices or ‘POLICRYPS’ template is formed by immersing the device in acetone post-fabrication to remove any remaining non-crosslinked material. Injecting the resultant series of polymer microchannels (~1 μm-thick) with a short-pitch, chiral nematic LC mixture leads to the spontaneous alignment of a fast-switching chiral nematic mode, where the helical axis lies parallel to the glass substrates. Optimal contrast between the bright and dark states of the uniform lying helix alignment is achieved when the structures are spaced at the order of the device thickness, which was also found to be the case for the achiral system. The high resolution DLW technique limits structures to the focal spot size of the beam, ~1 μm in diameter, such that the transmittance is expected to be significantly enhanced relative to other stabilization techniques. Moreover, both devices remain stable under electrical and thermal cycling.

Recently, photo-alignment technology has been the focus of research efforts because lowering the pre-tilt angle is essential for complete elimination of the off-axis light leakage. However, even though photo-alignment can provide zero pre-tilt angle, it has not yet been widely applied in mass production because of its weak surface anchoring, high curing energy, and strong image sticking. In this paper, we demonstrate that the zero pre-tilt angle can be obtained by employing the field-induced UV-alignment method. We have shown electro-optical characteristics and parameters related to the image quality of a fringe-field switching cell fabricated using the proposed method as functions of the monomer concentration and the UV irradiation time.

The effects of the combination of cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) cells on selective wavelength are investigated by the spectroscopic analysis under thermal modulation. The several kinds of CLC cells are formed by using the chiral dopants with different magnitudes and signs of helical twisting power (HTP). The combination of CLC cells with different temperature dependence shows that the infrared light range longer than 700nm is widely reflected and the visible light is little modulated when the temperature increase from 25 °C to 45 °C. The results demonstrate that the thermal modulation of selective transmittance spectra is controllable by the combination of CLC cells with different temperature dependence.

We have found the solution of the boundary value problem for reflectance and transmittance of normal circularly polarized light impinges on a cholesteric elastomer film with a twist defect. We have found a tunable resonant mode in the reflectance band for right and left circularly polarized light. When the values of chiral twist defect are increased in the cholesteric elastomer film, the resonant modes changes to shorter wavelength until the edge band is reached.