AbstractIn this paper, we introduce a novel liquid crystal structure, the Inverse Twisted Smectic Structure (ITSS), which has several advantages over the previously reported twisted smectic structure. Both these structures are capable of high-speed, gray scale modulation and phase modulation capability. Additionally, the easy fabrication of the ITSS makes it more attractive for practical applications. We discuss the use of this structure and the fabrication devices using the ITSS. Possible applications, such as the birefringence wavelength filter (BWF), and the digital wavelength filter (DWF) are also discussed and demonstrated experimentally.
Hydrogels with a macroscopic-scale liquid crystal structure by self-assembly of a semi-rigid polyion complex