The temperature range and optical properties of the liquid crystalline blue phase in inverse opal structures

A liquid crystal device was developed by infiltrating a blue phase liquid crystal (BPLC) in three-dimensional SiO₂ inverse opal (IOP) structures, of which the BP temperature range and electro-optical performance were investigated. The experimental results indicated that the pore size of IOP had a significant impact on the temperature range of the BP I phase. In particular, the IOP structure with a pore size of 1.7 μm (1.7 IOP) could extend the BP I temperature range from 5.0 °C to 11.5 °C and the device also exhibited a much lower driving voltage compared with that of the polymer-stabilized blue phase (PSBP) sample. Additionally, the electro-optical and tunable-optical properties of the as-designed device were also investigated. Our research provided a novel aspect to improve the BP properties and also presented a new strategy for tunable photonic structures based on BP liquid crystals.