Freestanding Scattering Polarizer Assembled with Subnanowires and Liquid Crystals

Conventional absorbing, reflective and scattering polarizers are facing various issues, such as severe optical loss, necessary oblique incidence, humidity sensitivity or aging-caused failure. Subnanowires (SNWs) with polymer-analogue properties, intrinsic order, and multi-level interactions attract widespread attention as superior candidates for building blocks of polarizers. Herein, freestanding and flexible liquid crystal (LC)-SNW films are prepared through a facile directional coating method, not only exhibiting good stability for water and repeated temperature fluctuations, but also showing good polarization performance for visible and near-infrared (NIR) light, with the polarization degree (P) values of 93%, 84%, and 63% at the wavelengths of 580, 780 and 960 nm. And the average haze achieves 85%. The LC-SNW films have great potential in applications for polarizers, holographic projection imaging and flexible optical devices.