The motions of particles dispersed in liquid crystals can be influenced by the application of an electric field, the effect depending on the field frequency and field amplitude. Sandwich cells under the application of electric field are widely used as the tool in order to investigate the fundamental research relating to electro-optic display technology. Therefore, the aim of this experimental work is to find and investigate novel motion of the particles dispersed in the liquid crystal phases, held within a sandwich cell. For the liquid crystal–particle systems in the sandwich cells in this thesis, the particle shapes, temperature and cell geometry are all shown to have an influence on the regime of the particle’s motions, with different phenomena observed using three different phases of liquid crystals. The experiments are designed to find and investigate the novel motion of the micron sized silica particles in the liquid crystal phases. In the chiral nematic phase, spherical particles are shown to exhibit linear motion, which is related to the electrophoretic mobility. Such spherical particles are also observed to show circular motion which is found to have a field dependency that can be related to Quincke rotation. A maximum frequency for motion occurs which is found to possibly be related to the effect of the ion diffusion in the liquid crystal-particle composite system. The direction of the circular motion is found to be independent of the handedness of the chiral nematic material. In the isotropic phase of a chiral nematic liquid crystal, the spherical particles do not exhibit any linear motion, which shows the system does not follow the traditional electrophoresis observed in normal isotropic liquids. The circular motion of the spherical particle that is observed in the isotropic phase is analysed in terms of the Quincke rotation and again shows the Maxwell relaxation time. The electric-field induced motion of elongated particles in four different nematic systems is examined. In this case of planar aligned systems, linear motion is observed, in which the velocity shows a minimum for particles of the same length as the cell gap. A novel field-induced defect texture appears in the homeotropic device containing a nematic liquid crystal of negative dielectric anisotropy. Interestingly, the motion of the particle is found to be strongly coupled with the defects formed.

In this thesis, the nonlinear properties of dye-doped liquid crystal films measured via Z-scan technique are presented, and we¡¦ve also compared the features of nonlinear effect between nematic and cholesteric liquid crystals, because the purpose was to obtain a strong nonlinear effect which is polarization independent. The nonlinear refraction of the samples would induce self-focusing/self-defocusing effect, therefore the Z-scan technique was utilized for the measurements in this study. The degrees of self-focusing/self-defocusing effect can be used to calculate the optical Kerr constants n2 related to the variation of refractive indices. Moreover, this technique is uncomplicated and powerful for nonlinear effect observations, because it only requires a single laser beam and a simple setup to measure both nonlinear refractive indices and nonlinear absorption coefficients. In the first section of the study, we had investigated the nonlinear effect of azo-dye-doped liquid crystal (ADDLC) films by Z-scan technique. Owing to the birefringence provided by homogeneous-alignment liquid crystal films and the absorption difference between the long axis and the short axis of the azo dye, the self-defocusing effect in nematic phase was larger than that in isotropic state as the polarization of incident light was parallel to the long axis of aligned liquid crystals. While we set the incident polarization perpendicular to the long axis of liquid crystals, a self-focusing effect was observed and the in nematic phase was found smaller than that in isotropic state. As a result, it can be analyzed that the nonlinear effect of homogeneous aligned ADDLC films is intensely polarization-dependent. In the second section, in order to acquire a polarization-independent nonlinear effect, we fabricated the azo-dye-doped cholesteric liquid crystal (ADDCLC) films which were arranged in planar texture with the reflection bands managed to avoid the III wavelength of incident light. We had studied the nonlinear effects in different concentrations of the azo dye and also measured the influence of incident polarizations. We discover that when the concentration of dyes was raised, the n2 increased as well; the nonlinear indices were almost the same in various polarized light. The incident light suffered an average refractive index in an ADDCLC film, and azo dye arranged in helices resulted in identical absorption to different polarized light. In summary, employing ADDCLCs with planar texture in nonlinear optical applications, we could achieve not only strong nonlinear effects but also high polarization independence in liquid crystals.

In our laboratory, we using simple synthetic methods to synthesize one series of amphiphilic discotic liquid crystal which has the dipole-dipole forces. We not only research the effect about the length of hydrophilic chain, but also explore the arrangement of this series through some cross-comparison.

Dissertation (Ph. D.)--University of Akron, Dept. of Polymer Engineering, 2009. / "May, 2009." Title from electronic dissertation title page (viewed 11/27/2009) Advisor, Avraam I. Isayev; Committee members, James L. White, Thein Kyu, Kevin Kreider, Shi-Qing Wang; Department Chair, Sadhan C. Jana; Dean of the College, Stephen Cheng; Dean of the Graduate School, George R. Newkome. Includes bibliographical references.

With exploding growth of information exchanges between people, display has become indispensable in our daily lives. After decades of intensive research and development in materials and devices, and massive investment in manufacturing technologies, liquid crystal display (LCD) has overcome various obstacles and achieved the performance we need, such as wide viewing angle, high contrast ratio, and high resolution, etc. These excellent performances make LCD prevailed in every perspective. Recently, with the demands of energy conservation, a greener LCD with lower power consumption is desired. In order to achieve this goal, new energy-effective driving methods, such as field sequential color display, have been proposed. However, in order to suppress color breakup the LC response time should be faster than 1 ms. To overcome this challenge, various fast-response liquid crystal modes, such as thin cell gap, low viscosity materials, overdrive and undershoot voltages, polymer stabilization, and ferroelectric liquid crystal, are under active investigations. Among these approaches, blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) shows a greater potential with less fabrication limitations. In this dissertation, the feasibility of polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystal for display applications is explored starting from the building blocks of the material system, polymer-stabilization processes, test cell preparations, electro-optical (EO) properties, to suggested approaches for further improvements. iv Because of the nature of blue phase liquid crystals, delicate balance among system components is critically important. Besides the properties of each composition, the preparation process also dictates the EO performance of the self-assembled nano-structured BPLC composite. After the preparation of test cells, EO properties for display applications are investigated and results described. Approaches for further improvements of the EO properties are also suggested in the final part of this dissertation.

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This thesis describes studies directed to the ring opening metathesis polymerisation of macromonomers and mesogenic monomers to produce graft copolymers and side chain liquid crystalline polymers respectively. The necessary background information relevant to the work described in this thesis is presented in chapter-1 and consists of four sections; namely, descriptions of metathesis polymerisation, anionic polymerisation, synthesis of graft copolymers and synthesis of side chain liquid crystalline polymers. The synthesis of the end capping reagent exo-5-norbomene-2- carbonyl chloride is described in chapter-2. The synthesis and characterisation of exo- 5-norbomene-2-poly(styrylcarboxylate) macromonomers by living anionic polymerisation is discussed in chapter-3. Chapter-4 reports the synthesis, characterisation and properties of graft copolymers prepared by ring opening metathesis polymerisation of exo-5-norbomene-2-poly(styrylcarboxylate) macromonomers. Chapters-5 describes the synthesis of the mesogenic monomer; (5)- (-)-2-methylbutyl-4-(4-(l 0-(3-cyclopentenylmethoxy) decyloxy) phenylcarbonyloxy) benzoate, suitable for ring opening metathesis polymerisation to produce side chain liquid crystalline polymer. The attempted synthesis of side chain liquid crystalline polymer by ring opening metathesis polymerisation of the mesogenic monomer; (5)-(- )-2-methylbutyl-4-(4-( 10-(3 -cyclopentenylmethoxy) decyloxy) phenylcarbonyloxy) benzoate is reported in chapter-6. Finally chapter-7 summarises the conclusions and makes some suggestions for future work.