Effects of Electric Fields on Lamellar Structures of Liquid-Crystalline Block Copolymers

ORAL

Abstract

We investigate the electrically induced lamellar contraction in microphase separated liquid-crystalline diblock copolymer using the phase field-crystal model. We demonstrate that collective rotations of the constituents liquid-crystal molecules relative to the layer normal can lead to unusually large changes of the lamellar spacing. We also demonstrate that the orientational order of the constituent liquid-crystals can accelerate microphase separation and can also lead to fast dislocation motion. Our results are directly relevant to the studies of electrically tunable block copolymer photonic crystals with a full color display.

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Authors

  • Simiso Mkhonta

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA

  • Zhi-Feng Huang

    • Wayne State University
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan 48201, USA

  • Ken Elder

    • Oakland University
    • Department of Physics, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan 48309, USA

  • Martin Grant

    • Physics Department, McGill University, Montreal, Canada