Influence of electric field on the orientation of ferroelectric liquid crystals inside micro capillaries

Abstract

In the paper we present recent results on investigation of ferroelectric liquid crystals molecules orientation inside photonic crystal fibers, which consist of a set of micro capillaries. We have infiltrated glass micro capillaries of different inner diameters with the experimental ferroelectric liquid crystal mixture W-206K. The orientation of the liquid crystal molecules was controlled by an external electric field applied to the sample. We have obtained promising results about the orientation of the ferroelectric liquid crystal molecules and their behavior under the influence of the applied external electric field. The presented results may lead to designing a new class of fast-switching fiber optic sensors. © 2013 Photonics Society of Poland.