Angular Dependence of Guest-Host Liquid Crystal Devices with High Pretilt Angle Using Mixture of Vertical and Horizontal Alignment Materials

To date, devices exhibiting incidence-angle-dependent transmittance have been fabricated by imparting an angle to a bulk liquid crystal (LC) by aligning the LC in the vicinity of one substrate horizontally (with respect to the substrate) while aligning the LC in the vicinity of another substrate vertically. Another approach has been to control LC angles near substrates by blending or layering horizontal and vertical alignment films. In this study, we control LC angles near substrates by controlling the pretilt angles of blended alignment films; for specific angles, we use dichroic dyes to characterize the incidence angle dependence of these LC devices. Using a guest/host LC device with a pretilt angle near 45 degrees, we successfully construct an LC element with a transmittance peak near a polar angle of 45 degrees.

Automated summary

To create devices with incidence-angle-dependent transmittance, previous methods involved aligning liquid crystal (LC) in a horizontal manner near one substrate and vertically near another substrate. This study introduces a new approach by controlling the pretilt angles of blended alignment films near the substrates, using dichroic dyes to characterize the incidence angle dependence. By controlling the pretilt angle to be near 45 degrees, an LC element with a transmittance peak near a polar angle of 45 degrees was successfully constructed using a guest/host LC device.