Dynamic formation of diffraction grating in a photorefractive liquid crystal cell with mesoporous TiO2 layers

Abstract

We report the photorefractive effect of a layer-structured liquid crystal cell using N3-chemisorbed mesoporous TiO(2) layers as photoconductive layers. Well-organized mesoporous TiO(2) thin films were prepared using surfactant templates. N3 was chemisorbed on the mesoporous TiO(2) layer to effectively generate excited electrons, which could be injected in the TiO(2) layer and participate in the generation of a space-charge field in the LC cell. The prepared liqud crystal cell shows unique characteristics of an inorganic photoconductive layer, a temporal diffraction grating formation.