Effect of gel-point versus conversion on the real-time dynamics of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) formation

Timothy J. Bunning; Lalgudi V. Natarajan; Vincent P. Tondiglia; Richard L. Sutherland

doi:10.1117/12.505846

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5 January 2004 Effect of gel-point versus conversion on the real-time dynamics of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) formation

Timothy J. Bunning, Lalgudi V. Natarajan, Vincent P. Tondiglia, Richard L. Sutherland

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Proceedings Volume 5213, Liquid Crystals VII; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.505846
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We present data that indicates much more uniform reflection grating notches are formed when using thiol-ene photopolymerization as compared to the typical multifunctional acrylate photopolymerization. The scaling behavior of both diffraction efficiency and notch bandwidth versus thickness is presented for both acrylate and thiol-ene-based polymer hosts. The latter follows predicted behavior over a much larger range of thickness than the former. We attribute these differences to a delay in the gel-point with respect to the reaction start. Since the bulk of shrinkage occurs before gelation, detrimental effects caused by anisotropic stress build-up and subsequent relaxation is minimized. Using real-time monitoring techniques, we monitor the blue shift of the notch wavelength and the bandwidth development as a function of time for both chemistries. We demonstrate that thicker samples with appreciable diffraction efficiency and narrow bandwidths can be obtained.

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Timothy J. Bunning, Lalgudi V. Natarajan, Vincent P. Tondiglia, and Richard L. Sutherland "Effect of gel-point versus conversion on the real-time dynamics of holographic polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (HPDLC) formation", Proc. SPIE 5213, Liquid Crystals VII, (5 January 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.505846

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