Dielectric and electro-optical properties of polymer-stabilized liquid crystal. II. Polymer PiBMA dispersed in MBBA

In continuation of our earlier work (Pande et al. in Appl Phys A 122:217–226, 2016), we report the results of dielectric and electro-optical properties of pure MBBA and PSLC (polymer PiBMA dispersed in MBBA) systems. The polymer networks domains formed are found to be anisotropic and are oriented in the direction of electric field for both the planar and homeotropic alignment cells. The dielectric anisotropy, optical anisotropy, response time, threshold voltage, splay elastic constant and rotational viscosity were observed for both the LC and PSLC systems with electric field. The liquid crystal properties are affected significantly with increasing concentration of polymer in pure LC material. It has been observed that the polymer networks interaction plays a major role in changing the properties of PSLC system. The effect of dielectric loss and dielectric permittivity on both pure LC and PSLC systems is also discussed.