Dynamic holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals

Controlling the optical properties of patterned optical materials is generally useful. Much headway has been made into patterning passive optical structures and fabricating them of a variety of materials. Recent efforts have been made to tune the properties thermally, electronically and optically. Liquid crystals offer several mechanisms for varying their optical properties. They have been incorporated into patterned templates to make electro-optic and photo-optic materials. Holographic photopolymerization provides a means to form an arbitrary structure incorporating multiple material phases such as liquid crystals. Electro optic holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (HPDLCs) have been the subject of extensive investigation. We report photo-optic HPDLCs incorporating azobenzene derived liquid crystals (Azo-LCs).