Liquid crystalline cubic blue phases from a mixture of conventional rod-like nematogen and photoresponsive bent-core molecule

Abstract We have succeeded in realizing a photoinduced cubic blue phase (BP) by mixing conventional rod-like nematogen with photoresponsive bent-core (BC) molecule. The isomerization associated with ultraviolet (UV) stimulus can significantly affect the phase transition in our BP system and the observed temperature range of the cubic BP was shown to increase to about 30 °C (including the 10 °C span of the intrinsic BP) by photoconversion of the N * phase. However, photoinduced BP had a tendency to be easily destroyed by electric field, a factor that may be a critical obstacle for electro-optical (EO) applications. In contrast, the intrinsic cubic BP was more stable in applied electric fields and exhibited an EO performance that could be defined by the Kerr effect, with sub-millisecond response times.