Polymer-Dispersed Liquid Crystals Actuated by a Rotary Triboelectric Nanogenerator

Authors：Cheng, Ko-Ting; Guo, Hengyu; Hsiao, Vincent K. S.^*; He, Jr-Hau; Wang, Zhong Lin^*

Source：IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2022, 34(24): 1369-1372.

DOI：10.1109/LPT.2022.3214502

• Optical switches
• Velocity control
• Electric fields
• Performance evaluation
• Triboelectricity
• Optical polymers
• Nonlinear optics
• Polymer-dispersed liquid crystals
• triboelectric nanogenerator
• photonic devices

In this work, polymer-dispersed liquid crystals (PDLCs) under an applied electric field are actuated by a rotary triboelectric nanogenerator (r-TENG). Conventional PDLCs generally rely on high DC voltages for on-off switching, but they can also be effectively switched on and off using an moderate high AC voltage at a frequency of several kHz with a smaller voltage. Here, we use a simple r-TENG to study the optical states of PDLC cells at different low frequencies (2-100 Hz) and simultaneous monitoring of the open-circuit voltage ( V (oc )) and short-circuit current ( I-sc ) to describe the optical performance of PDLC cells with different thicknesses. The results show that the I-sc , provided by a r-TENG with a low V (oc) (1-2V), inside a PDLC cell is the key factor that determines its performance. Through the application of the r-TENG, we successfully demonstrate the on-off switching of nine PDLC cells connected in series with an area of 15 x 15 mm, and the power consumption is equal to that of a single PDLC cell. This research expands the potential applications of TENGs in photonics and also provides a way to improve the optical properties of PDLCs by connecting TENGs to achieve optimal performance for PDLC-related optoelectronic devices.

• Institution
  中国科学院; 重庆大学