Micro-Nanostructure-Stabilized Liquid-Crystalline Blue-Phase

Currently, the remaining grand challenge LCDs face in the display market is response time (a few milliseconds), which is ~ 100 times slower than that of an OLEDs (~ 0.1 ms); to achieve sub-millisecond response time for suppressing the colour breakup issue, blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) is emerging as a strong candidate for reaching this goal. In recent works, the group has demonstrated that a polymeric microwell template can dramatically improve the stable temperature range up to 20°C (typically 1−5 °C) of the BPLC while enhancing reflectivity, and stability of the reflection peak wavelength. In this project, we extend the temperature range and ideal single-crystals of blue phase liquid crystal, which can be used to significantly increase the refresh rate of LCD displays to 50°C by an approach based on the combination of organised microstructures and nano-patterned planar surface substrates. 

Funding:

  1. Novel liquid crystal infiltrated microstructures and their applications (MOST-RS International Exchange Scheme 2017) – PI: Prof. John Rarity, Co-I: Dr. Ying-Lung Daniel Ho, funded by the Royal Society, value (£): 11,700, 01/03/2017 – 28/02/2019.

Publications:

  1. J.-D. Lin, Y.-L. D. Ho*, L. Chen, M. Lopez-Garcia, S.-A. Jiang, M. P. C. Taverne, C.-R. Lee, and J. G. Rarity, “Microstructure-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystals” ACS Omega 3, 15435–15441 (2018).
  2. Y.-L. D. Ho*, Mike P. C. Taverne, Pisu Jiang, Shun-An Jiang, Jia-De Lin, Chia-Rong Lee, John G. Rarity, “Micro-/Nanostructure-Stabilized Liquid-Crystalline Blue-Phase,” The 2019 Conference on Lasers & Electro-Optics / Europe and European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO® / Europe-EQEC), Munich, Germany, June 23 - 27, 2019.
  3. Jia-De Lin, Shun-An Jiang, Ying-Lung Daniel Ho, Lifeng Chen, Martin Lopez-Garcia, Mike P. C. Taverne, Chia-Rong Lee, and John G. Rarity, 2018, “Microstructure-Stabilized Blue Phase Liquid Crystals,” Liquid Crystal Conference in Taiwan, Dec. 21, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
  4. Jia-De Lin, Ying-Lung Daniel Ho, Lifeng Chen, Martin Lopez-Garcia, Shun-An Jiang, Mike P.C. Taverne, Chia-Rong Lee, and John G. Rarity, 2018, “Microstructure stabilized blue phase liquid crystal,” Optics & Photonics Taiwan, International Conference (OPTIC 2018), Dec. 6-8, Tainan, Taiwan.

Collaborators: