Electro-optical effect coupled with macroscopic deformation of swollen nematic elastomers

Kenji Urayama; Atsushi Fukunaga; Ichiro Kobayashi; Toshikazu Takigawa

doi:10.1117/12.734761

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12 September 2007 Electro-optical effect coupled with macroscopic deformation of swollen nematic elastomers

Kenji Urayama, Atsushi Fukunaga, Ichiro Kobayashi, Toshikazu Takigawa

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Proceedings Volume 6654, Liquid Crystals XI; 66540J (2007) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734761
Event: Photonic Devices + Applications, 2007, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

We present the simultaneous electro-optical and electro-mechanical effects in the nematic elastomers swollen by a low molecular- mass liquid crystal (LMMLC). Under electric fields normal to the initial director, the swollen nematic elastomers exhibit a pronounced change in effective birefringence as a result of director rotation, and they also show a macroscopic strain of more than 10%. This paper mainly focuses on the dynamic aspect of this phenomenon. We evaluate the rise and decay times for the electro-optical and electro-mechanical effects in response to "field-on" and "field-off". The rise time for the optical response at sufficiently high fields reaches a few milliseconds which are comparable to that of LMMLCs. The optical decay times lie about 5 ms (independently of field strength) that is more than two orders of magnitude smaller than that of LMMLCs with the similar cell thickness, because the modulus of rubber elasticity overwhelms the Frank elasticity. The mechanical response is slower than the optical response, but the ratio of the two characteristic times (about 10) is almost independent of field strength as well as whether the field is imposed or removed.

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Kenji Urayama, Atsushi Fukunaga, Ichiro Kobayashi, and Toshikazu Takigawa "Electro-optical effect coupled with macroscopic deformation of swollen nematic elastomers", Proc. SPIE 6654, Liquid Crystals XI, 66540J (12 September 2007); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.734761

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