Davies Matthew, Hobbs Matthew J, Nohl James, Davies Benedict, Rodenburg Cornelia, Willmott Jon R
Sensor Systems Group, Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
Sci Rep. 2022 Nov 2;12(1):18496. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-23292-9.
We demonstrate a new technique for producing Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystal (PDLC) devices utilising aerosol jet printing (AJP). PDLCs require two substrates to act as scaffold for the Indium Tin Oxide electrodes, which restricts the device geometries. Our approach precludes the requirement for the second substrate by printing the electrode directly onto the surface of the PDLC, which is also printed. The process has the potential to be precursory to the implementation of non-contact printing techniques for a variety of liquid crystal-based devices on non-planar substrates. We report the demonstration of direct deposition of PDLC films onto non-planar optical surfaces, including a functional device printed over the 90° edge of a prism. Scanning Electron Microscopy is used to inspect surface features of the polymer electrodes and the liquid crystal domains in the host polymer. The minimum relaxation time of the PDLC was measured at 1.3 ms with an 800 Hz, 90 V, peak-to-peak (Vpp) applied AC field. Cross-polarised transmission is reduced by up to a factor of 3.9. A transparent/scattering contrast ratio of 1.4 is reported between 0 and 140 V at 100 Hz.
我们展示了一种利用气溶胶喷射印刷（AJP）制造聚合物分散液晶（PDLC）器件的新技术。PDLC需要两个基板作为氧化铟锡电极的支架，这限制了器件的几何形状。我们的方法通过将电极直接印刷在同样被印刷的PDLC表面，从而无需第二个基板。该工艺有可能成为在非平面基板上对各种基于液晶的器件实施非接触印刷技术的先驱。我们报告了将PDLC薄膜直接沉积在非平面光学表面上的演示，包括在棱镜90°边缘上印刷的功能器件。扫描电子显微镜用于检查聚合物电极的表面特征以及主体聚合物中的液晶域。在施加800Hz、90V峰峰值（Vpp）交流电场的情况下，测量得到PDLC的最小弛豫时间为1.3毫秒。交叉偏振透射降低了高达3.9倍。在100Hz时，0至140V之间的透明/散射对比度为1.4。
