Phase-separated polymer/liquid-crystal composite films driven by dc electric field

We report on the polarity-sensitive electro-optical and electrical capacitive properties of a bilayer-structured polymer/liquid-crystal composite device driven by dc electric field. The experimental results show that the investigated properties of the asymmetrically-structured composite film are related to the electric polarity due to the different materials sandwiching the LC layer. Doping SiC nanoparticles into the LC matrix is found to restrain the serious ion effect, as revealed by the data acquired via the voltage-dependent transmittance and voltage-dependent capacitance measurements.