Vol. 39, Issue 3, pp. 571-578 (2009)

Abstract

The methods of correlation optics are for the first time applied to study the structure of liquid crystal–polymer (LC–P) composites. Their phase correlation function (PCF) was obtained considering LC–P composite as a random phase screen. The amplitude of PCF contains information about the number of LC domains and structure of LC director inside of them, while a half-width of this function is connected with the size of these domains. In good agreement with previous studies by SEM technique we detected a monotone decrease of LC domains with polymer concentration. When applying the electric field, for the samples with φ_P > 35 vol.% (PDLC morphology), the amplitude of PCF is monotonic. On the contrary, if φ_P < 35 vol.% (PNLC morphology) the amplitude of PCF is non-monotonic and, depending on the applied voltage, goes through maximum.