Ultrafast Electro-optic Switching in Nematic Liquid Crystals
Abstract
We report on measurements of the switching time for the nematic liquid crystal 5CB using a specially designed low capacitance, high voltage cell. Planar pretilted (θ0 = 15^circ), rubbed polymer alignment was employed with the field inducing a homeotropic orientation (θ = 90^circ). Switching times as low as ~30 ns were achieved at pulsed fields of amplitude ~ 250 V/μm. Observations made of the transmission of a HeNe laser show that, after a voltage dependent delay time, the switching rise time obeys a 1/V^2 law. In this high voltage regime the width of the distorted surface layer can be neglected, and an analytical solution can be obtained for an entire slab which switches with uniform director orientation. The resulting expression captures many of the essential details of the experiment. This work was supported by NSF MRG 92-24168 and ARO DAAH 04-93-G-0164.
- Publication:
-
APS March Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- March 1996
- Bibcode:
- 1996APS..MAR.A1704T