Patent ID: 8801964

Claim:
A liquid crystal sensor material, comprising: a plurality of liquid crystal droplets, each droplet comprising a liquid crystal material and a polymer network comprising a plurality of crosslinked polymer chains wherein the polymer network is configured to decrease a light transmission voltage of said sensor material; a polymer matrix located around each of the plurality of liquid crystal droplets such that said each of the plurality of liquid crystal droplets is located within the polymer matrix; and an interfacial layer located between the polymer matrix and said each of the liquid crystal droplets so as to encapsulate said each of the plurality of liquid crystal droplets with the interfacial layer and inhibit coupling of the networked polymer with the interfacial layer, wherein the polymer network comprising the plurality of crosslinked polymer chains extends to the interfacial layer without substantially anchoring to the interfacial layer, and wherein the polymer network comprising the plurality of crosslinked polymer chains extends substantially across said each droplet from a first portion of the interfacial layer on a first side of said each droplet to a second portion of the interfacial layer on a second side of said each droplet.