Electrooptical response of the films of polymer dispersed nematic with conical boundary conditions

The electrooptic response of films of polymer dispersed nematic under conical boundary conditions has been investigated. An axial-bipolar director configuration is formed in nematic droplets. It has been shown that initially, the orientation of droplet’s bipolar axes is chaotic both in the sample plane and relative to the normal to the substrates. The applied voltage U orients the droplet’s bipolar axes parallel to the electric field and the reorientation process is threshold only when the bipolar axis is initially orthogonal to the substrate normal. Accordingly, the samples strongly scatter light in the initial state, and the optical response to an electric field is thresholdless. The samples with a film thickness of 5, 10, 20 and 30 μm have been studied. All the samples under study are characterized by a high transmittance and contrast ratio, which for a 30 μm sample are equal to 84 % and 5536, respectively, and achieved at U = 12 V. The results obtained are relevant for use in low-power optoelectronic devices required for the development of energy-saving technologies in aerospace engineering.