Patent ID: 7648645

Claim:
A composition comprising: a liquid crystal component, a photo polymerization initiator; and a polymer precursor component comprising: (i) 40 to 95% wt of a first monomer of structure (I) R 1 m R 2 p Si(X) 4-m-p (I) wherein, R 1 is a acryloxy, methacryoxy, or (meth)acryloxyalkyl; R 2 is independently selected from hydrogen, (C 1 -C 12 )alkyl, (C 6 -C 12 )aryl, or C 7 -C 17 )arylalkyl; X is a hydrolysable or non-hydrolysable group; m is an integer from 1 to 3 and (m+p) is an integer from 1 to 3; (ii) 0.05 to 65% wt of one or more second monomers of structure (II) R 3 n -R 4 (II) wherein, R 3 is independently selected from acryloxy or methacryloxy, R 4 is (C 1 -C 20 )alkyl or (C 7 -C 17 )arylalkyl, optionally containing one or more heteroatomic substitutions independently selected from S, O, Si, or N; n is an integer from 1 to 4; (iii) 0.05 to 55% wt of a ester, urethane, or (meth)acrylate based polymer or oligomer, bearing one or more reactive (meth)acrylate groups.