Effects of Anchoring Strength in Poly(vinyl alcohol)/Liquid Crystal Composite Films with Interface Layers

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Abstract
The electrooptical properties of three kinds of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA)/liquid crystal (LC) composite films with three combinations of added photocurable mixtures of benzylacrylate (BzA) and perfluorooctylethylacrylate (FA-108), benzylmethacrylate (BzMA) and FA-108, and nonaoxyethylenediacrylate (9EG-A) and FA-108 were studied paying special attention to the LC droplet size and the anchoring energy at the interface between the polymer and the LC, and effects of photocurable monomers on morphology and electrooptical properties of PVA/LC composite films with added photocured polymers. The PVA/LC composite films with added photo-crosslinkable monomers showed a low driving voltage of 15 V r m s and a low hysteresis of less than 1 V r m s , suggesting the improvement of electrooptical properties caused by reduction of the anchoring energy and the thermal dynamics of polymers.