Method of fabricating electro-optical devices with polymer-stabilized liquid crystal molecules
First Claim
1. A preparation method comprising:
- disposing a chiral or cholesteric liquid crystal, a photoreactive monomer, and a photoinitiator in a liquid crystal cell; and
illuminating a principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with ultraviolet light selected to have a non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell, the illuminating cooperating with the photoinitiator to polymerize at least a portion of the photoreactive monomer near the principal surface to generate a surface polymer network component having a density corresponding to the non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile, the polymer network biasing the liquid crystal toward a selected helical alignment direction; and
uniformly illuminating a principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with ultraviolet light selected to have a substantially uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell, the uniform illuminating cooperating with the photoinitiator to polymerize at least a portion of the photoreactive monomer to generate a volume polymer network component having a density that is substantially uniform in the liquid crystal cell.
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Abstract
In a preparation method, a chiral or cholesteric liquid crystal, a photoreactive monomer, and a photoinitiator are disposed in a liquid crystal cell. A principal surface of the liquid crystal cell is illuminated with ultraviolet light selected to have a non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell. The illuminating cooperates with the photoinitiator to polymerize at least a portion of the photoreactive monomer near the principal surface to generate a polymer network having a density corresponding to the non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile. The polymer network biases the liquid crystal toward a selected helical alignment direction. In some embodiments, the illuminating includes illuminating with first and second ultraviolet light intensity profiles to produce surface and volume polymer network components.
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Citations
17 Claims
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1. A preparation method comprising:
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disposing a chiral or cholesteric liquid crystal, a photoreactive monomer, and a photoinitiator in a liquid crystal cell; and illuminating a principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with ultraviolet light selected to have a non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell, the illuminating cooperating with the photoinitiator to polymerize at least a portion of the photoreactive monomer near the principal surface to generate a surface polymer network component having a density corresponding to the non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile, the polymer network biasing the liquid crystal toward a selected helical alignment direction; and uniformly illuminating a principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with ultraviolet light selected to have a substantially uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell, the uniform illuminating cooperating with the photoinitiator to polymerize at least a portion of the photoreactive monomer to generate a volume polymer network component having a density that is substantially uniform in the liquid crystal cell. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method for fabricating an electo-optic device, the method comprising:
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disposing a liquid crystal and a photoreactive monomer in a liquid crystal cell; arranging the liquid crystal in a uniformly lying helix texture; and optically polymerizing the photoreactive monomer to form a stabilizing polymer network, the optical polymerizing including (i) illuminating a principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with ultraviolet light selected to have a non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile in the liquid crystal cell so as to generate a surface polymer network component of the polymer network having a density corresponding to the non-uniform ultraviolet light intensity profile and (ii) illuminating a principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with ultraviolet light selected to have a substantially uniform light intensity profile across the gap of the liquid crystal cell so as to generate a volume polymer network component of the polymer network having a density that is substantially uniform across the gap of the liquid crystal cell. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12)
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13. A preparation method comprising:
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disposing a chiral or cholesteric liquid crystal and a photoreactive prepolymer in a gap of a liquid crystal cell; illuminating a first principal surface of the liquid crystal cell with a first ultraviolet light selected to have a first light intensity profile in the gap of the liquid crystal cell that is non-uniform, the illuminating with the first ultraviolet light causing polymerization of a portion of the photoreactive prepolymer near the first principal surface to generate a first polymer network component having a density that is non-uniform corresponding to the first light intensity profile; and illuminating at least one of the first principal surface and a second principal surface of the liquid crystal cell different from the first principle surface with a second ultraviolet light selected to have a second light intensity profile in the gap of the liquid crystal cell that is substantially uniform, the illuminating with the second ultraviolet light causing polymerization of a portion of the photoreactive prepolymer to generate a volume polymer network component that is substantially uniform across the gap of the liquid crystal cell. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17)
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Specification