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Fabrication of a simultaneous red–green–blue reflector using single-pitched cholesteric liquid crystals

Nature Materials volume 7, pages 43–47 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

A cholesteric liquid crystal (CLC) is a self-assembled photonic crystal formed by rodlike molecules, including chiral molecules, that arrange themselves in a helical fashion. The CLC has a single photonic bandgap and an associated one-colour reflection band for circularly polarized light with the same handedness as the CLC helix (selective reflection)1. These optical characteristics, particularly the circular polarization of the reflected light, are attractive for applications in reflective colour displays without using a backlight, for use as polarizers or colour filters2,3,4,5,6,7 and for mirrorless lasing8,9,10,11,12. Recently, we showed by numerical simulation that simultaneous multicolour reflection is possible by introducing fibonaccian phase defects13. Here, we design and fabricate a CLC system consisting of thin isotropic films and of polymeric CLC films, and demonstrate experimentally simultaneous red, green and blue reflections (multiple photonic bandgaps) using the single-pitched polymeric CLC films. The experimental reflection spectra are well simulated by calculations. The presented system can extend applications of CLCs to a wide-band region and could give rise to new photonic devices, in which white or multicolour light is manipulated.

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Figure 1: CLCs and multi-CLC systems with a single pitch.
Figure 2: Simulated reflection spectra of multi-CLC systems at normal incidence of L-CP.
Figure 3: Experimental measurements of multiple reflections and transmissions in multi-CLC systems.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Organic and Polymeric Materials, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 2-12-1 O-okayama, Meguro-ku, Tokyo 152-8552, Japan

    Na Young Ha, Youko Ohtsuka, Soon Moon Jeong, Yoichi Takanishi, Ken Ishikawa & Hideo Takezoe

  2. Central Technical Research Laboratory, Nippon Oil Corporation, 8 Chidori-cho, Naka-ku, Yokohama 231-0815, Japan

    Suzushi Nishimura & Goroh Suzaki

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  1. Na Young Ha
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  2. Youko Ohtsuka
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Correspondence to Hideo Takezoe.

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Ha, N., Ohtsuka, Y., Jeong, S. et al. Fabrication of a simultaneous red–green–blue reflector using single-pitched cholesteric liquid crystals. Nature Mater 7, 43–47 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2045

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