Domaines
Soft matter
Type of internship
Expérimental Description
Saint-Gobain has developed extensive expertise in glass functionalisation. Once the appropriate layers have been deposited, glass can become coloured, reflect infrared rays, scatter light, etc. The ideal solution is to make its properties adjustable to the environment in order to optimise the building's energy performance. Liquid crystals are good candidates: they have interesting optical properties, are easy to handle and respond to external stimuli (electrical voltage, temperature). We propose to study the potential of a new system liquid crystal-based system.
We will study the optical and structural properties of defects generated in smectic phase A liquid crystal layers, a few hundred nm thick. the following points will be explored:
- Fabrication of the samples and study of the experimental parameters to be controlled in order to obtain and modulate the defects.
- Study of the optical properties of the samples (light scattering, spectra) to better understand the relationship between the microsctructure of the sample and the interference observed.
- Study of the effect of light polarisation on the optical properties of the system.
Contact
Patrick Davidson