Tailoring material composition for optimization of application-specific switchable holograms

1. A process for reducing scattering effects in a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical element comprising:

adding an interfacial tension agent to a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material, the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material comprising:

at least one acrylic acid monomer;

at least one type of liquid crystal material;

a photoinitiator dye; and

a co-initiator; and

subjecting the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material to a polymerizing means, wherein the interfacial tension agent reduces the size of liquid crystal droplets formed within the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical element during polymerization of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material.

2. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the interfacial tension agent contains a hydroxyl group.

3. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the interfacial tension agent is of the type: C n H (2n+1) COOH wherein n≦18.

4. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material further comprises a reactive diluent.

5. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a polymer matrix formed upon polymerization of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material containing the at least one acrylic acid monomer in an amount sufficient to increase the conductivity of the polymer matrix and cause a reduction in the switching voltage.

6. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one acrylic acid monomer is approximately 1.0–1.5 percent of the weight of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material.

7. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal optical element further comprises a polymerizable monomer that is polymerized according to a different chemical process than the at least one acrylic acid monomer.

8. The process according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one acrylic acid monomer is polymerized using a first polymerizing means and the polymerizable monomer is polymerized using a second polymerizable means.

9. The process according to claim 8 , wherein the first and second polymerizing means are selected from the group consisting of: visible radiation, ultraviolet radiation, heat, electron beam, and reactants.

10. The process according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one acrylic acid monomer is polymerized at a first time and the second polymerizable monomer is polymerized at a second time.

11. The process according to claim 7 , wherein the polymerizable monomer is a thiol-ene.

12. The process according to claim 7 , wherein the at least one acrylic acid monomer comprises approximately 30–50% of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material and the polymerizable monomer comprises approximately 5–20% of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material.

13. The process according to claim 8 , wherein the at least one acrylic acid monomer is polymerized by a free-radical chemical reaction and the polymerizable monomer is polymerized by a step-growth chemical reaction.

14. The process according to claim 4 , wherein the diluent is selected from the group consisting of decanoic acid and dodecanoic acid.

15. The process according to claim 4 , wherein the diluent comprises approximately 3–4% of the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal material.

16. The process according to claim 1 , wherein the interfacial tension agent is a long chain alkyl compound.

17. The process according to claim 1 , further comprising the step of adding a co-monomer.

18. The process according to claim 17 , wherein the co-monomer is selected from the group consisting of fluorinated mono-acrylates and methacrylates.