Enhanced flexoelectric switching made from self-assembly of smectic liquid crystal and triallyl dopant

Here we report an enhanced flexoelectric switching in a self-assembled system of smectic liquid crystal and some specific dopant. The assembled unit block seemed to have electric dipole and as a result induces large flexoelectric polarization due to its asymmetric shape and shows fast switching to the electric field. The unit blocks are oriented in a helical fashion in the cell with large gap (∼5 μm) and shows selective reflection property. In the thin cell (∼2 μm), the unit blocks are aligned homeotropically on the bare ITO substrate with no surface treatment and shows fast decaying time.