Transmission holographic polymer‐dispersed liquid crystal based on fluorinated polymer matrices

The grating formation dynamics, morphology and electro‐optical properties of transmission gratings of holographic polymer dispersed liquid crystals (HPDLCs) were investigated based on partial fluorination of the host polymer matrices by incorporating three different types of fluorinated monomer. Addition and increasing amounts of fluorinated monomer gave short saturation time and increased off‐state diffraction efficiency with a maximum due to the chemical incompatibility between fluorinated compounds and LC, whereas the droplet size increased with increasing fluorinated monomer content. In addition, fluorinated monomer induced decreased switching voltage and increased response time due to the low anchoring energy at the polymer–LC interfaces and increased droplet size. At an optimum content of fluorinated monomer, a minimum switching voltage of 5 V µm−1, a rise time of 0.25 ms and a decay time of 23.15 ms were obtained.