Effect of UV intensity on the electro-optical properties of polymer dispersed liquid crystal lens for smart electronic glasses

Polymer dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) lenses were made from a mixture of prepolymer (NOA 65) and E7 liquid crystal (LC). The mixture of polymer dispersed in LC was polymerized by ultraviolet (UV) irradiation in the polymerization induced phase separation process. With varying UV curing intensity in this process, the electrooptical properties of PDLC lens device such as transmittance, driving voltage, response times, contrast ratio (C/R) and slope of the linear region of the transmittance-voltage were measured and optimized for application to smart electronic glasses with auto-shading and auto-focusing functions. The optimum UV intensity for the PDLC lenses was more than 580 µW/cm2. These results were improved compared to our previously reported data[1] for the application of these PDLC lenses to smart electronic glasses with auto-shading and/or auto-focusing functions.