Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090040453 | Method of plasma beam bombardment of aligning films for liquid crystals - Methods for treating aligning substrates produces uniform alignment of liquid crystals in at least two modes. The method is based on the treatment of liquid crystal aligning substrates with a collimated or partially collimated plasma beam. In one embodiment, the method comprises a step of bombarding an aligning substrate with at least one plasma beam from a plasma beam source at a designated incident angle to align the atomic/molecular structure or the surface profile of the aligning substrate in at least one aligned direction. | 02-12-2009 |
20110085229 | Methods and Apparatus for Controlling Dispersions of Nanoparticles - Electrically reconfigurable metamaterial with spatially varied refractive index is proposed for applications such as optical cloaks and lenses. The apparatus and method comprises a metamaterial in which the refractive indices are modified in space and time by applying one or more electric fields. The metamaterials are electrically controllable and reconfigurable, and consist of metal (gold, silver, etc.) particles of different shapes, such as rods, with dimension much smaller than the wavelength of light, dispersed in a dielectric medium, for example, fluids such as water, toluene, oil, glycerine, thermotropic liquid crystal, lyotropic liquid crystal, polymer, elastomer, and other suitable materials placed in a non-uniform electric field. The metamaterial is controlled by applying a non-uniform electric field that causes two effects: (1) It aligns the metallic anisometric particles with respect to the direction of the applied electric field and (2) It redistributes particles in space, making their local concentration position dependent. Both effects modify the local value of the dielectric permittivity of the composite meta-material, thus modifying its effective optical refractive index (or indices, as the material is often birefringent). | 04-14-2011 |
Patent application number | Description | Published |
20090231260 | LIQUID CRYSTAL DEVICE AND METHOD THEREOF - The invention provides a liquid crystal device and method thereof. Subsequent to applying a first electrical voltage on a liquid crystal to induce a reorientation of the liquid crystal, a second electrical voltage with proper polarity is applied on the liquid crystal to assist the relaxation of the reorientation that was induced by the first electrical voltage. The “switch-off” phase of the liquid crystal can therefore be accelerated or temporally shortened, and the device can exhibit better performance such as fast response to on/off signals. The invention can be widely used LCD, LC shutter, LC lens, spatial light modulator, telecommunication device, tunable filter, beam steering device, and electrically driven LC device, among others. | 09-17-2009 |
20100044650 | NANOPARTICLE COMPOSITION, A DEVICE AND A METHOD THEREOF - The invention provides a nanoparticle composition, a device including the nanoparticle composition, and a method thereof. The composition comprises nanoparticles such as Gold nanorods (NR) and electrically charged self-assembled molecular aggregates such as disodium chromoglycate (DSCG) in a common solvent such as water. The nanoparticles are assembled as, for example, side-by-side and end-to-end assemblies of nanorods, through a non-covalent interaction such as anisotropic electrostatic interaction with the electrically charged self-assembled molecular aggregates. The invention can be used in a cloaking device, a biological sensing device, a drug delivery, a meta material, a negative index material, an enhanced imaging device, and a device for solar energy conversion, and exhibits many merits such as simpler process without the need of a covalent bonding between the nanoparticles, different manners of nanoparticles assembling with same linker, higher thermal stability, cost effectiveness, and capability of gradual controlling of the degree of NR assembly, among others. | 02-25-2010 |
20110017949 | Methods and apparatus to produce aligned film of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals - The present invention comprises a device and method for ordering molecules of lyotropic chromonic liquid crystals to aligned structure of a dried film. An example of an aligned film may be transparent to visible light but not transparent to polarized light in the ultraviolet and/or infrared portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. A shearing device having a shearing tool and a repelling pad may repel the solvent and provide a shear force to shear the LCLC dissolved in the solvent as a film on the surface of a substrate. A method of making an aligned lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal-based film comprises providing a mixture of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal material in a solvent for the liquid crystal material, applying the mixture to a substrate, shearing the lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal with a shearing device and removing the solvent to produce an aligned lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal-based film. | 01-27-2011 |
20120162548 | METHOD FOR ELECTROPHORESIS IN LIQUID CRYSTALS - A method of electrophoretic movement of particles through a liquid crystal utilizes a direct (DC) or alternating (AC) electric field that is applied along the liquid crystal director (for liquid crystals with a positive dielectric anisotropy) or perpendicular to the director (for liquid crystals with a negative dielectric anisotropy). A perpendicular or tilted orientation of the liquid crystal molecules at the surface of the particle causes distortions, such that the fore-aft (or left-right) symmetry of the particle is broken. The asymmetric orientation of the liquid crystal around the particle allows both charged and neutral particles to be transported, even when the particles themselves are perfectly symmetric (spherical). | 06-28-2012 |
20150261023 | METHOD FOR ELECTROPHORESIS IN LIQUID CRYSTALS - A method of electrophoretic movement of liquid droplets/gas bubbles through a liquid crystal utilizes a direct (DC) or alternating (AC) electric field that is applied along the liquid crystal director (for liquid crystals with a positive dielectric anisotropy) or perpendicular to the director (for liquid crystals with a negative dielectric anisotropy). A perpendicular or tilted orientation of the liquid crystal molecules at the surface of the liquid droplet/gas bubble causes distortions, such that the fore-aft (or left-right) symmetry of the liquid droplet/gas bubble is broken. The asymmetric orientation of the liquid crystal around the liquid droplet/gas bubble allows both charged and neutral particles to be transported, even when the liquid droplets/gas bubbles themselves are perfectly symmetric (spherical). | 09-17-2015 |