title: Blue phase liquid crystal: strategies for phase stabilization and device development.
abstract: The blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) is a highly ordered liquid crystal (LC) phase found very close to the LC-isotropic transition. The BPLC has demonstrated potential in next-generation display and photonic technology due to its exceptional properties such as sub-millisecond response time and wide viewing angle. However, BPLC is stable in a very small temperature range (0.5-1 °C) and its driving voltage is very high (∼100 V). To overcome these challenges recent research has focused on solutions which incorporate polymers or nanoparticles into the blue phase to widen the temperature range from around few °C to potentially more than 60 °C. In order to reduce the driving voltage, strategies have been attempted by modifying the device structure by introducing protrusion or corrugated electrodes and vertical field switching mechanism has been proposed. In this paper the effectiveness of the proposed solution will be discussed, in order to assess the potential of BPLC in display technology and beyond.
authors.affiliation: Solid State Nanodevices Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: M D Asiqur
authors.initials: MD
authors.lastname: Rahman
authors.affiliation: Solid State Nanodevices Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Suhana
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mohd Said
authors.affiliation: Solid State Nanodevices Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Balamurugan
keywords: Kerr effect; blue phase liquid crystal; electrode architecture; nanoparticles addition; polymer stabilization