Submillisecond switching of nematic liquid crystal in cells fabricated by anisotropic phase-separation of liquid crystal and polymer mixture

Liquid crystal (LC) cells consisting of a very thin (submicrometer) nematic LC layer switch with time response smaller than 1 ms. The total response time, i.e., sum of the turn-on and turn-off times, can be made as small as 1.3 ms. Such devices were prepared by a photoinduced anisotropic phase separation of mixtures of the LC and prepolymer. The formation of the LC-polymer bilayer in these devices was confirmed by polarized light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The phase separation method permits one to fine-tune the LC film thickness by varying the LC concentration in the mixture. This technique can be used to fabricate fast LC devices for TV and video applications.