Electro-optical properties of aligned polymer dispersed liquid crystal films

Abstract

We study the electro-optical properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) films with various kinds of alignment. These films are transparent in the electric field-on state and opaque in the field-off slate. Experimental data show that the contrast ratio of these aligned films can be higher than that of a usual type PDLC film. The relationship between the field-off state transmittance of such a PDLC film and the polarization of the incident light is discussed. The optical properties of such aligned films can be described by a theory based on Beer's law. (C) 1997 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.