Binary cholesteric/blue-phase liquid crystal textures fabricated using phototunable chirality in azo chiral-doped cholesteric liquid crystals

This work demonstrates the binary cholesteric/blue-phase liquid crystal (CLC/BP-LC) textures fabricated using phototunable chirality in azo chiral-doped CLCs (ACdCLCs). The key mechanism is the effective optically controllable chirality of the ACdCLCs, resulting from the competition between the right- and left-hand chirality in ACdCLCs following the illumination by specific types of light. By properly selecting AC materials, the texture can be optically switched between BP-LC platelets and CLCs. Moreover, the AC diffusion behavior is also discussed in detail.