Liquid Crystal Microdroplets and confined systems for novel shutters

液晶不仅对显示器很重要，对下一代光子器件也很重要。它们已经被用于制造可打印激光器、智能窗户、自适应光学、可切换滤光器和光学互连。本研究生将研究液晶材料的新几何结构，最终目的是生产快速相位调制器。在液晶领域，人们越来越感兴趣的一个领域是使用液晶液滴来容纳材料。虽然这已经用聚合物做了几年了，但在乳液、外壳和气溶胶中使用液晶还是新的。这些系统有可能产生新颖的电光材料，其中折射率由外加场调制。研究将开始通过调查如何控制液滴的形成，影响液滴的形状和大小的方法，并调查方法获得不同的液晶结构内的液滴在一个可控的方式。

Liquid crystals are not just important for displays, but also for the next generation of photonic devices. They arealready being used to create printable lasers, smart windows, adaptive optics, switchable optical filters andoptical interconnects. This studentship will investigate new geometries of liquid crystal materials with the ultimateaim of producing fast phase modulators. An area of increasing interest in liquid crystals is the use of droplets ofliquid crystals to contain the material. Although this has been done using polymers for some years now, the useof liquid crystals in emulsions, shells and aerosols is new. These systems have the potential to produce novelelectro-optic materials where the refractive index is modulated by an applied field. The research will begin byinvestigating how to control droplet formation, methods for influencing droplet shape and size, and to investigatemethods for obtaining different liquid crystal structures within the droplets in a controllable fashion.