Thin-film-transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) has been widely used in smartphones, pads, laptops, computer monitors, and large screen televisions, just to name a few. A great deal of effort has been delved into wide viewing angle, high resolution, low power consumption, and vivid color. However, relatively slow response time and low transmittance remain as technical challenges. To improve response time, several approaches have been developed, such as low viscosity liquid crystals, overdrive and undershoot voltage schemes, thin cell gap with a high birefringence liquid crystal, and elevated temperature operation. The state-of-the-art gray-to-gray response time of a nematic LC device is about 5 ms, which is still not fast enough to suppress the motion picture image blur. On the other hand, the LCD panel's transmittance is determined by the backlight, polarizers, TFT aperture ratio, LC transmittance, and color filters. Recently, a fringe-field-switching mode using a negative dielectric anisotropy (Δε) LC (n-FFS) has been demonstrated, showing high transmittance (98%), single gamma curve, and cell gap insensitivity. It has potential to replace the commonly used p-FFS (FFS using positive Δε LC) for mobile displays. With the urgent need of submillisecond response time for enabling color sequential displays, polymer-stabilized blue phase liquid crystal (PS-BPLC) has become an increasingly important technology trend for information display and photonic applications. BPLCs exhibit several attractive features, such as reasonably wide temperature range, submillisecond gray-to-gray response time, no need for alignment layer, optically isotropic voltage-off state, and large cell gap tolerance. However, some bottlenecks such as high operation voltage, hysteresis, residual birefringence, and slow charging issue due to the large capacitance, remain to be overcome before their widespread applications can be realized. The material system of PS-BPLC, including nematic LC host, chiral dopant, and polymer network, are discussed in detail. Each component plays an essential role affecting the electro-optic properties and the stability of PS-BPLC. In a PS-BPLC system, in order to lower the operation voltage the host LC usually has a very large dielectric anisotropy (Δε > 100), which is one order of magnitude larger than that of a nematic LC. Such a large Δε not only leads to high viscosity but also results in a large capacitance. High viscosity slows down the device fabrication process and increases device response time. On the other hand, large capacitance causes slow charging time to each pixel and limits the frame rate. To reduce viscosity, we discovered that by adding a small amount (~6%) of diluters, the response time of the PS-BPLC is reduced by 2X-3X while keeping the Kerr constant more or less unchanged. Besides, several advanced PS-BPLC materials and devices have been demonstrated. By using a large Δε BPLC, we have successfully reduced the voltage to <10V while maintaining submillisecond response time. Finally we demonstrated an electric fieldindeced monodomain PS-BPLC, which enables video-rate reflective display with vivid colors. The highly selective reflection in polarization makes it promising for photonics application. Besides displays in the visible spectral region, LC materials are also very useful electro-optic media for near infrared and mid-wavelength infrared (MWIR) devices. However, large absorption has impeded the widespread application in the MWIR region. With delicate molecular design strategy, we balanced the absorption and liquid crystal phase stability, and proposed a fluoro-terphenyl compound with low absorption in both MWIR and near IR regions. This compound serves as an important first example for future development of low-loss MWIR liquid crystals, which would further expand the application of LCs for amplitude and/or phase modulation in MWIR region.

Les traitements antireflets (AR) sont très largement utilisés pour améliorer la transmission de systèmes optiques composés de hublots, lentilles, de lames séparatrices,… Dans cette thèse les gammes spectrales visées sont le visible étendu [400-1800nm] et le moyen infrarouge [3,7-4,8µm]. La méthode de nanostructuration par dépôts de films minces utilisant des techniques PVD en incidence oblique (Oblique Angle Deposition) a été choisie car elle permet d’envisager des AR hautes performances sur une large gamme de longueur d’onde, via un procédé industrialisable. L’introduction de porosité via le contrôle des angles de dépôt est utilisée pour nanostructurer l’architecture de chaque couche et de l’empilement ; méthode permettant de modifier et d’optimiser les propriétés optiques des couches constituantes en vue d’un design complet optimal. Une cartographie des indices effectifs accessibles par OAD a été dégagée concernant les trois matériaux déposés (TiO2, SiO2 et Ge). Mais les propriétés optiques de ces couches nanostructurées diffèrent largement de celles des couches denses du fait de la présence d’anisotropie, de gradient d’indice, de diffusion et d’absorption. A partir de caractérisations microstructurales, chimiques et optiques poussées (AFM, MEB, MET, tomographie FIB, tomographie MET, EDX, EELS, spectrophotométrie et ellipsométrie généralisée) un modèle optique analytique plus complexe et couplé à des analyses par éléments finis (FDTD) est présenté. L’ensemble du travail a permis d’élaborer par OAD de simples antireflet bicouches démontrant déjà de hauts niveaux de transmission, supérieurs aux traitements AR existants (interférentiel) ou en développement (Moth-eyes). / Anti-reflective (AR) coatings are widely used to improve the transmission of optical systems composed of window, lenses, separating filters,... In this thesis, the spectral ranges targeted are the extended visible [400-1800nm] and the mid infrared [3.7-4.8µm]. Thin film deposition nanostructuring method using oblique angle deposition (oblique angle deposition) PVD technique was chosen because it allows high performance AR to be considered over a wide wavelength range, by an industrial process. The introduction of porosity with the control of deposition angle is used to nanostructure the architecture of each layer and stack; a method for modifying and optimizing the optical properties of the constituent layers for optimal complete design. A mapping of the effective indices accessible by OAD has been identified for the three materials deposited (TiO2, SiO2 and Ge). However optical properties of these nanostructured layers differ greatly from those of dense layers due to the presence of anisotropy, index gradient, diffusion and absorption. Based on advanced microstructural, chemical and optical characterizations (AFM, SEM, TEM, FIB tomography, TEM tomography, EDX, EELS, spectrophotometry and generalized ellipsometry) a more complex analytical optical model coupled with finite element analyses (FDTD) is presented. All the work has enabled OAD to develop simple two-layer anti-reflective coatings that already demonstrate high levels of transmission, superior to existing (interferential) or work in progress (Moth-eyes) AR treatments.