Role of Stimuli on Liquid Crystalline Defects: From Defect Engineering to Switchable Functional Materials

• Published in: Materials Vol. 13; no. 23; p. 5466
• Main Authors: Shin, Min Jeong, Yoon, Dong Ki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 30.11.2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Anchoring; Anisotropy; Boundary conditions; Crystal defects; Defects; electric field application; Electric fields; Functional materials; geometric confinement; Geometry; Interdisciplinary studies; interface; Liquid crystals; Materials science; Optical properties; Physical properties; Polyvinyl alcohol; Quantum dots; Review; Rubbing; Stimuli; surface treatment; Topography
• DOI: 10.3390/ma13235466
• ISSN: 1996-1944

Achieving tunable physical properties is currently one of the most exciting research topics. In order to realize this goal, a medium that is responsive to external stimuli and can undergo a change in its physical property is required. Liquid crystal (LC) is a prominent candidate, as its physical and optical properties can be easily manipulated with various stimuli, such as surface anchoring, rubbing, geometric confinement, and external fields. Having broken away from the past devotion to obtaining a uniform domain of LCs, people are now putting significant efforts toward forming and manipulating ordered and oriented defect structures with a unique arrangement within. The complicated molecular order with tunability would benefit the interdisciplinary research fields of optics, physics, photonics, and materials science. In this review, the recent progress toward defect engineering in the nematic and smectic phases by controlling the surface environment and electric field and their combinational methods is introduced. We close the review with a discussion of the possible applications enabled using LC defect structures as switchable materials.