Control of haze value by dynamic scattering in a liquid crystal mixture without ion dopants

We report a method to control the haze value by dynamic scattering in a liquid crystal mixture without ion dopants. The liquid crystal (LC) mixture consists of chiral smectic C (SmC*) and nematic (N) LC molecules. In the absence of an electric field, LC molecules in the SmC* phase are oriented by the neighboring vertically-aligned N-LC molecules so that the LC cell is transparent. When a vertical electric field is applied to the LC cell, N-LC molecules with negative dielectric anisotropy tilt down in a random direction parallel to the two substrates, whereas SmC*-LC molecules are rotated with the polarity reversal of the applied field. During the switching process, we observed dynamic scattering because the random orientation of N-LCs is maintained via the rotation of SmC*-LCs, resulting in a high-haze translucent state without the use of ionic dopants. The LC mixture exhibited a very high haze of 96.1% in the translucent state while maintaining the haze-free (<1%) transparent state owing to the use of an LC layer without a polymer structure.