Characteristics of Right- and Left-Handed Polymer-Dispersed Cholesteric Liquid Crystals

The characteristics of right- and left-handed polymer-dispersed cholesteric (chiral nematic) liquid crystals (PDCLCs), which were fabricated using an enantiomeric pair of dopants, are confirmed to be basically the same. These have a memory effect that stably maintains both selectively reflective and transparent states. A stack of right-handed PDCLC cell and left-handed one with enantiomeric selective-reflection characteristics increases the reflectivity of a PDCLC reflective-color display. Furthermore, the observed selective reflection in the transparent state suggests that the operation of the PDCLC is based on a rearrangement of helical axes produced by the applied electric field.