There exists a problem with an in situ diagnostics of contamination of ethyl alcohol in a human being exhaled air. When ethyl alcohol in a mouth blowing (in a gaseous state) exists, the characteristic C–H stretch absorption bands in –CH3 and –CH2 – functional groups in ethanol (CH3–CH2–OH) appear at a wavelength of λ = 3.42 μm. To investigate the presence of ethyl alcohol in exhaled human air, the light beam of λ = 3.42 μm is passing through an air sample. If one alternately measures the intensity of the investigated beam and the reference, a percentage of ethanol in the air sample can be estimated using a sensitive nondispersive infrared (NDIR) system with a stable operating flow mass detector. To eliminate a mechanical chopper and noise generating stepper motors, a photonic chopper as a liquid crystal shutter for λ = 3.42 μm has been designed. For this purpose, an innovative infrared nematic liquid crystal mixture was intentionally prepared. The working mixture was obtained by a selective removal of CH bonds and its exchange by heavier polar substituents, what ensures a lack of absorption band of C–H bonds. The paper presents theory, concept and final experimental results of the infrared nematic liquid crystals mixture and the liquid crystal shutter for breathalyzer applications.
The paper presents the application of liquid crystal thermography for temperature determination and visualisation of two phase flow images on the studied surface. Properties and applications of thermochromic liquid crystals are discussed. Liquid crystals were applied for two-dimensional detection of the temperature of the heating foil forming one of the surfaces of the minichannel along which the cooling liquid flowed. The heat flux supplied to the heating surface was altered in the investigation and it was accompanied by a change in the color distribution on the surface. The accuracy of temperature measurements on the surface with liquid crystal thermography is estimated. The method of visualisation of two-phase flow structures is described. The analysis of monochrome images of flow structures was employed to calculate the void fraction for some cross-sections. The flow structure photos were processed using Corel graphics software and binarized. The analysis of phase volumes employed Techsystem Globe software. The measurement error of void fraction is estimated.
Polarimetric optical fiber sensors based on highly birefringent (HB) polarization-maintaining fibers have focused great interest for last decades. The paper presents a novel modular fiber optic sensing system of potential industrial applications to measure temperature, hydrostatic pressure, and strain that is based on classical HB and photonic crystal fibers and can operate at visible and infrared wavelengths. The main idea of the system is a novel and replaceable fiber-optic head, which allows adjusting the measuring system both to the required range and type (strain, pressure or temperature) of the external measurand. We propose also a new configuration of the fiber optic strain gauge with a free cylinder and an all-fiber built-in analyzer based on the photonic crystal fiber filled with a liquid crystal. Additionally, strain sensitivities of various HB fibers operating at visible and infrared wavelengths range have been measured.
A liquid crystal display (LCD) recycling process is needed to increase its efficiency by recovering the resources in addition to metals and plastics. This study investigates the pre-treatment process for recycling LCD glass. Recycling pre-treatment includes dismantling the LCD from the waste product, crushing the glass, and separating the glass particles from the impurities. Scanning electron microscopy confirmed that the oscillation milling process is more effective in maintaining uniform powder shape and size as compared to the cut milling process. The glass particles crushed by the oscillating mill, optimized at 1500 rpm, had a uniformly distributed particle size of less than 10 µm. These small particles were separated from the organic impurities, achieving a 98% pure powder that can be used as recycled raw materials. The proposed pre-treatment process for recycling LCD glass will enhance the ability to use waste glass as a valuable resource in the manufacturing of future displays.
In this work studies on propagation properties of a microstructured polymer optical fibre infiltrated with a nematic liquid crystal are presented. Specifically, the influence of an infiltration method on the LC molecular alignment inside fibre air-channels and, thus, on light guidance is discussed. Switching between propagation mechanisms, namely the transition from modified total internal reflection (mTIR) to the photonic bandgap effect obtained by varying external temperature is also demonstrated.
Nowadays, the energy cost is very high and this problem is carried out to seek techniques for improvement of the aerothermal and thermal (heat flow) systems performances in different technical applications. The transient and steady-state techniques with liquid crystals for the surface temperature and heat transfer coefficient or Nusselt number distribution measurements have been developed. The flow pattern produced by transverse vortex generators (ribs) and other fluid obstacles (e.g. turbine blades) was visualized using liquid crystals (Liquid Crystal Thermography) in combination with the true-colour image processing as well as planar beam of double-impulse laser tailored by a cylindrical lens and oil particles (particle image velocimetry or laser anemometry). Experiments using both research tools were performed at Gdańsk University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Present work provides selected results obtained during this research.
In this work, an electrically tunable long-period fiber grating (LPFG) coated with liquid crystal layer (LC) is presented. As a LC layer, a prototype low-birefringence 1550A LC mixture was chosen. As a LPFG host, two types of gratings were studied: the LPFGs based on a standard telecommunication fiber, produced by an electric arc technique with a period of 222 μm, and the LPFGs based on a boron co-doped fiber written by a UV technique with a period of 226.8 μm. The relatively short period of these gratings allowed exploiting unique sensing properties of the attenuation bands associated with modes close to the turn-around point. Experiments carried out showed that for the UV-induced LPFG with a LC layer, on the powered state the attenuation band could be offset from the attenuation band measured in the unpowered state by almost 130 nm. When the arc-induced LPFG was coated with the LC, the depth of the attenuation band could be efficiently controlled by applying an external E-field. Additionally, all experimental results obtained in this work were supported by the theoretical analysis based on a model developed with Optigrating v.4.2 software.
Propagation of linearly polarized light beams in a nematic liquid crystal cell with distinguished regions of different molecular orientation has been analyzed. Specifically, combination of the planar/homogenic and homeotropic alignment, forming thus spatially limited regions characterized by a different LC molecular orientation, has been tested, as achieved by means of the photo-orientation and photo-polymerization processes, independently. An influence of molecular orientation on the light beam propagation has been checked for different directions of the linear polarization. Thanks to the molecular reorientation induced by the low frequency external electric field and also to the reorientational nonlinearity taking place in NLCs, propagation direction of the light beam can be additionally controlled by the electric bias and/or optical power, respectively. Proposed structural solutions and techniques, related to the photo-orientation and photo-polymerization processes described in this communication, give rise to the novel LC geometries and structures. The latter act as promising candidates for new practical photonic applications as they are expected to be of a particular importance for integrated optic elements and devices.
In this paper analyses of mode distribution, confinement and experimental losses of the photonic crystal fibers with different core sizes infiltrated with liquid crystal are presented. Four types of fibers are compared: with single-, seven-, nineteen- and thirty seven solid rods forming the core in the same hexagonal lattice of seven “rings” of unit cells (rods or capillaries). The experimental results confirming the influence of the core diameter on light propagation are also included. The diameter of cores determines not only the number of modes in the photonic liquid crystal fiber but also is correlated with experimentally observed attenuation. For fibers with larger cores confinement losses are expected to be higher, but the measured attenuation is smaller because the impact of liquid crystal material losses and scattering is smaller.
The aim of this work was to induce permanent birefringence both in typical liquid crystal cells and photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) by photo-polymerization. For this purpose three different liquid crystalline materials, namely E7, 5CB, and 6CHBT were combined with a mixture of RM257 monomer and a UV sensitive initiator with the percentage weight less than 10%. Due to the photo-polymerization process it was possible to achieve polymer-stabilized liquid crystal orientation inside LC cells and micro-sized cylindrical glass tubes. In particular, periodic change in spatial molecular orientation was achieved by selective photo-polymerization. Successful results obtained in these simple geometries allowed for the experimental procedure to be repeated in PCFs leading to locally-induced permanent birefringence in PCFs.
In the present investigation optical, electro-optical and dielectric properties have been measured for nematic liquid crystal (NLC) material 1550C which consists of 4’-(trans, trans-4-alkylbicyclohexyl) carbonates and 4’-(4-(trans,trans-4-alkyl)-4-cyanobicyclohexane, dispersed with fluorescent dye (Benzo 2,1,3 Thiadiazole) in two different concentrations. Photoluminescence has been enhanced for a dye dispersed system which is the key finding of this investigation. UV absorbance study has also been performed and found to be increased for composite system. Enhanced birefringence after dispersion of dye into pure NLC is also a prominent result of this investigation. Relative permittivity, threshold voltage and dielectric anisotropy have also been measured and found to be increased. The outcome of the present work may be very useful in the construction of liquid crystal displays (LCDs).
In the present work TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) have been dispersed into three different nematic liquid crystals (2020, 1823A and 1550C) in different concentration. The value of the birefringence (Δn) has been calculated by the transmitted intensity method at a 632.8 nm wavelength. NLC 2020 used in the present study is a high birefringent material (Δn = 0.44), NLC 1550C is a low birefringent material (Δn = 0.067) and NLC 1823A is a mid birefringent material (Δn = 0.14). An increased value of birefringence has been found after dispersion of TiO2 NPs in all three NLCs but this increment depends upon the concentration of the dopant material, temperature range and chemical character of the mixtures. It is suggested that this LC materials can be applicable in making of phase shifters, compensators and many more photonic devices.
There exists a need in a quality and accuracy of a three-dimensional laser metrology operating in numerically controlled automatic machines. For this purpose, one sends three laser beams mutually perpendicular. These three beams of the wavelength λ = 0.6328 μm are generated by the same laser and are directed along three independent, orthogonal, mutually perpendicular, optical paths with a given light polarization plain. Using these beams, constituting the frame of coordinates, three independent laser rangefinders are able to determine spatial coordinates of a working tool or a workpiece. To form these optical pulses, a special refractive index matched Half-Wave Plate with nematic Liquid Crystal (LCHWP) was applied. The presented half-wave plate is based on a single Twisted Nematic (TN) cell (with the twist angle Φ = π/2) of a rather high cell gap d ~15 μm filled with a newly developed High-Birefringence Nematic Liquid Crystal Mixture (HBLCM) of optical anisotropy as high as Δn ~0.40 at λ = 0.6328 μm, where the Mauguin limit above 5.00 ~ Δnd >> λ/2 = 0.32 is fulfilled.
Over the last twenty years, there has been a growing interest in the design of tunable devices at microwave frequencies by us- ing liquid crystals technology. In particular, the use of liquid crystals with high dielectric anisotropy allows manufacturing voltage-controlled devices to operate in a wide frequency range. In this work the frequency response of a liquid crystal band-pass filter with dual-mode microstrip structure has been studied in depth by using a simulation software tool. A reshap- ing of a conventional dual-mode square patch resonator bandpass filter with a square notch, studied in the literature, has been proposed with the goal of improving the filter performance. The main features achieved are a significant increase in the return loss of the filter and a narrowing of a 3-dB bandwidth. Specifically, a reduction in the filter bandwidth from 800 MHz to 600 MHz, which leads to a return loss increase from 6 dB to 12.5 dB, has been achieved. The filter centre frequency can be tuned from 4.54 GHz to 5.19 GHz.
Dielectric properties of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) mixture ZhK-1282 were investigated in the frequency range of 102–106 Hz and a temperature range of −20 to 80°С. On the basis of the Debye’s relaxation polarization model dielectric spectra of temperature dependence of the orientational relaxation time τ and the dielectric strength δe were numerically approximated at the parallel orientation of a molecular director relative to alternating electric field. Influence of ester components in the mixture plays crucial role in relaxation processes at low temperature and external field frequency. The activation energy of the relaxation process of a rotation of molecules around their short axis was measured in a temperature interval of −20 to +15°С in which the dispersion of a longitudinal component of the dielectric constant takes place. The energy of potential barrier for polar molecules rotation in the mesophase was calculated. The value of the transition entropy from the nematic to isotropic phase was obtained from this calculation. The values of the coefficient of molecular friction and rotational diffusion were obtained by different methods. The experimental data obtained are in a satisfactory agreement with the existing theoretical models.
We propose real time phase measurements in liquid crystals cells using Young's interferometer constructed with a new principle with possibility to control the distance between two point sources. The optical interference optical pattern is detected by a bicell photo-detector in a back Fourier focal plane. A phase modulation controlled by a monopixel liquid crystals’ cell placed in a reference arm of interferometer is observed as a dynamic shift of the fringes’ pattern in spatial domain. Concept of signals’ demodulation in the Fourier focal plane will be described using a new approach to the demodulation signals. In this work we evaluate the demodulation condition of our setup and we present measurements of a dynamic phase response for nematic liquid crystals and antiferroelectric liquid crystals cells.
The molecular dynamics of the well-known nematic liquid crystal 4-n-pentyl-4′-cyanobiphenyl geometrically restricted in Anopore and Synpor porous membranes with various pore structure and treated by different surfactants (namely decanoic acid and lecithin) is compared. In the Anopore membrane the chosen surfactants induce the homeotropic orientation of the molecules on the walls of the cylindrical pores and observed corresponding relaxation processes (librational modes) are practically the same. The dielectric measurements of lecithin treated Synpor membranes reveals the reorientation of the molecules from planar to homeotropic on the complex multilayer structure present in their volume. The dielectric strengths of the observed two molecular processes (δ-process and librational mode) are inversed in the ratio compared to the untreated membranes. The observed differences in molecular dynamics results from the orientation of the liquid crystal molecules in untreated and treated membranes and the structure of the membranes themselves.
In the paper, an extended analysis of the polarization properties of a liquid crystal cell with a biconically tapered single-mode telecommunication optical fiber was presented. These properties are a result of a sample geometry and used LC materials. They were analyzed by using two theoretical models based on the matrix decomposition methods, i.e., polar and singular-value one. By measuring Mueller matrices, information about losses, depolarization, dichroism and birefringence was obtained. In the experiment two types of tested samples filled with well-known 6CHBT and E7 liquid crystals were prepared and all optical parameters were shown as the voltage dependence. The tested samples have dichroic properties and for both models calculated PDL is similar and it increases from 2.6 to 6.6 dB for E7 and from 0.4 to 2.7 dB for 6CHBT with voltage changes within the range of 40 – 190 V. Optical losses simultaneously decrease from 30 dB to 27 dB and from 36 dB to 28 dB, respectively. The birefringence properties cannot be directly comparable due to differences between both applied models but voltage fluctuations of these parameters are not significant. These results confirm expected dichroic properties of designed device and complete knowledge about its working principles. Moreover, presented analysis validates usefulness of the singular-value decomposition model applied to dichroic optical fiber elements.
To study the influence of structural features of phthalocyanine (Pc) derivatives on their physico-chemical properties in bulk and thin films, 23 new phthalocyanines with different quantity and ratio of donor (alkyloxy-groups, in fragment “A”) and acceptor (Cl-, in fragment “B”) substituents in one molecule of the A3B, ABAB and AABB types with varied length of alkyloxy-substituents and their metal complexes were designed and synthesized. A comparative analysis of spectral, mesomorphic and photoelectric properties of these mix-substituted phthalocyanines of a “push–pull” type was performed. It was shown that non-peripheral substitution by alkyloxy-fragments in hetero-substituted Pcs (similar to homo-substituted Pc) leads to red-shifting of the Q-band into near-IR region. The intensity of photoluminescence, position of peaks and their splitting are strongly connected with chemical structure of Pcs and the type of solvent. In contrast to non-mesogenic octyloxy-Pc (A4) having alkyloxy-substituents in non-peripheral positions, 22 of 23 synthesized compounds possess columnar mesomorphism. The change of donor–acceptor ratio can influence the type of mesophase. A new approach to the creation of materials for optoelectronics is proposed and implemented, which includes design of compounds possessing vitrification from mesophase with maintenance of a columnar order, absorption in the near IR-region of the spectrum and good performance electrophysical characteristics simultaneously.