Research

Liquid crystals

The relevance of liquid crystals in nature and technology goes far beyond the popular application in flat panel displays. Thus, research in this area is a highly topical subject. The current work in Paderborn is focused on micro- and nanostructures with liquid crystals. On the one hand, small periodic structures my spontaneously appear in liquid crystals. On the other hand, extremely small artificial structures can be fabricated by modern technology and subsequently combined with a liquid crystal. In the graduate program „Micro- and Nanostructures in Optoelectronics and Photonics“, switchable holograms based on polymer-dispersed liquid crystals are fabricated and investigated; together with physicists and electrical engineers in Paderborn, we develop switchable light sources based on micro resonators; tunable micro-structured optical fibers for potential applications in optical data transmission and communication are made and investigated; ultra thin layers of organic semiconductors for organic light emitting diodes and photovoltaic applications are developed. In international collaborations with scientists in Europe and North America, we try to obtain insights by which mechanisms the addition of small amounts of nanoparticles can significantly alter or even invert the electrooptic switching behavior of a liquid crystal.

Liquid crystalline phases