Polarity-dependent bistable optical grating in chiral bent-core nematic liquid crystals

We examined the flexodomains (FDs) in chiral bent-core nematics (BCNs), and demonstrated the morphology changed from parallel stripes in pure BCN to oblique ones in chiral BCNs. While the magnitude of obliqueness angle strongly depended on the concentration of chiral dopant, its sign was determined by the polarity of the driving voltage, thus FDs appeared alternately as symmetrical oblique stripes in the positive and negative half a.c. voltage cycles, respectively. Also the HTP value of chiral dopant in BCNs can be determined based on this phenomenon. The polarity-dependent behavior of FDs can be potentially exploited in photonic devices with a bistable function. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America