Electro-optical devices from polymer-stabilized liquid crystals with molecular shape polarity

We present a fast-switching electro-optical device based on flexoelectro-optic effect in short pitch cholesterics oriented in uniform lying helix texture. The device has two operating modes: amplitude and phase modulation mode. The amplitude modulation mode is a fast in-plane switching of the device optic axis that enables to achieve a high percent of modulation of the transmitted light intensity whereas the phase mode gives a continuous change of the refractive index and thus of the phase shift of the transmitted light. By using a small concentration of diacrylate monomer and selecting the illumination conditions we have been able to create a inhomogeneous polymeric network mostly localized at both substrate surfaces and stabilize the two switching modes.