Investigation of electro-optical properties in bistable liquid crystal films doped with CsxWO3 nanorods

It is of great practical significance to develop efficient and reversible bistable liquid crystal films. This work provides a multiple phase-shift controllable liquid crystal film containing tungsten bronze (CsxWO3) nanorods (NRs) and cholesteric liquid crystal, which can reversibly control the phase-shift via electric field, temperature or near infrared light. The CsxWO3 NRs were coated by polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) layer, and the CsxWO3/PVP NRs could form a compatible NIR-absorbing film, which could generate heat to switch LC film from planar texture to focal conic texture. The bistable liquid crystal film could save almost 53% time at thermal elimination compared to LC mixture without NIR absorbent when the content of CsxWO3/PVP NRs reaches 0.8%. The functional bistable liquid crystal films reported in this paper expand the application field of bistable liquid crystal display.