Overview of stressed liquid crystal

Stressed liquid crystal (SLC), discovered 20 years ago in the study of polymer dispersed liquid crystals and polymer network liquid crystals, has attracted great interest from researchers. SLC achieves decoupling of liquid crystal film thickness and switching speed, representing a significant breakthrough in fast response and large phase modulation materials. This paper reviews the related concepts of stressed liquid crystals, precautions in their preparation, and summarizes factors affecting their electro-optic properties; it also introduces research progress and discusses future development directions in applications such as smart glass, tunable attenuators, Fourier spectrometers, adaptive optics, liquid crystal shutters, tunable gratings, and optical phased arrays. Analysis of existing research indicates that stressed liquid crystals have important applications and industrial potential in high-speed dynamic networks, passive smart dimming, miniature Fourier spectrometers, AR/VR dynamic focusing, laser communication beam control, and high-resolution liquid crystal shutters.