Photostimulated phase transitions in the photoresponsive nematic droplets

We prepared monodispersed 3wt% photoresponsive liquid crystal 4,4'-Azoxydianisole doped in the nematic liquid crystal E7 droplets in an aqueous solution of 3wt% PVA in Deionized water by using flow focussing glass capillary microfluidic device. We studied the UV irradiation-induced Nematic to Isotropic phase transitions in hexagonally closed packed (hcp) array of droplets and in the flat geometry by measuring the transmitted intensity of a He-Ne laser from a Photodetector. The time required to go from the nematic phase to the photostimulated isotropic phase for the nematic droplets was much faster compared to the flat geometry.