Electrically Tunable Chiral Ferroelectric Nematic Liquid Crystal Reflectors

Abstract

Manipulating light is an important area of optical research and development. To that end, tunable dichroic devices in which the reflectivity at differing wavelengths can be adjusted, are particularly valuable. This work is motivated by recent studies of the optical properties of chiral ferroelectric nematic liquid crystals (FNLCs). Here electro-optical studies are presented on two room temperature, FNLC materials that demonstrate electrically tunable reflectivity when subject to a field below 0.2 V µm−1. Moreover, under appropriate conditions, the reflectivity can also be electrically (and reversibly) tuned (without change of color) from 0% to 40%. Reversible, low voltage tunable mirrors, having miniscule power consumption and operable around ambient temperature are expected to be useful in diverse applications ranging from energy-saving, smart windows to virtual reality interfaces.