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Biography

Chien received a PhD (1988) from the University of Southern Mississippi in Polymer Science. joined the Liquid Crystal Institute of ������ as a postdoctoral fellow in 1988 and was promoted to a Senior Research Fellow in 1989. He holds the appointments as an Associate Professor (1995) and Professor (2000) at the Advanced Materials and Liquid Crystal Institute and Materials Science Program as well as a visiting professor at Technical University Eindhoven, Netherlands (2003) and Stanford University (2015).

Research: Chien studies fundamentals of liquid crystal, polymer and their composites for exploration of stimuli-responsive knowhows, explores photoalignment techniques and develops tools and methods of fabrication polymer stabilized liquid crystals. His research Interests include development of new materials and device applications in direct-view, wearable and free-space displays, bistable color reflective cholesteric displays, e-tags, e-tablets and smart windows.

His research in tailoring liquid crystal materials to provide control over structure, surface, morphology, and processing has led to the development of new electro-optical devices. For examples, research in active and stimuli-responsive low- and high-molar-mass materials have led to the development of artificial muscles, light emitting devices and organic thin film transistors; Furthermore, the active materials whose functionality are used for controlled- assembly or self-assembly of dispersed nanoparticles to ordered structures to enhance desired properties of functional devices.

His research in polymer and liquid crystal composites focuses on control of dimension, location and spatial distribution of phase separated polymers at the micro- and nanoscale on substrate surfaces or in the bulk.  His research in polymer dispersed, modified and stabilized liquid crystal materials have led to the development of advanced electro-optical, photonic and display devices such as reflective bistable displays, electrically switchable color filters, electrically switchable gratings and light modulation devices.  The recently developed polymer dispersed and stabilized blue phases enable the fabrication of fast-switching spatial light modulators.

Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities

He has served as an Associate Editor for IEEE/LEOS Journal of Display Technologies (2004-2011), Crystals (2016- ), Journal of Display Technologies (2016 - ), Journal of Society of Information Displays (2012- ), guest editor of IEEE/IPC, Applied Optics and Molecular Crystal and Liquid Crystals (2013-2014). Chien also serves as the Conference Chair/Co-Chair for Liquid Crystals at Materials Research Society, SPIE Photonics West, Optics of Liquid Crystals, International Liquid Crystal Conference, Gordon Research Conference. He has authored/co-authored 25 SPIE/MRS Conference Proceedings and 9 Book Chapters as well as published over 300 referred/juried papers (Google Scholar) liquid crystals, photo- and non-contact alignments, polymer-stabilized liquid crystals. -Chien is an inventor/co-inventor on enabling technologies including bistable color cholesteric liquid crystal displays, photoalignment, polymer-stabilized liquid crystals with 48 issued patents (Google Patents).

Recent Publications:

C.-T. Hou, T. S. Lin, X.-D. Mi, M. He, L.-C. Chien, “Modeling and optimization strategies for dye-doped super twisted nematic liquid crystal light valves,” Opt. Mater. Ex. 14, 375-386 (2024).

S Chauhan, S. Mukherjee, A.Varanytsia, C.T. Hou, L. Zou, L.-C. Chien, “Efficient random lasing in topologically directed assemblies of blue-phase liquid crystal microspheres,” Opt. Mater. Express 10, 2030-2044 (2020).

V. Joshi,D. A.Paterson, J. M. D. Storey, C.T. Imrie, L.-C.Chien, “Augmenting Bragg reflection with polymer-sustainedconical helix,” Sci. Rep. 9, 5468 (2019).

V. Joshi, M. Groom, and L.-C. Chien, “Glasses-free 3-D visualization withmulti-layered transparent cholestericfilms,” Opt. Ex. 27, 16847-16854 (2019).

E. Kemiklioglu and L. C. Chien, “Effect of achiral halogen-substituted bent-core molecules on the blue phases,” J. Mol.Liq. 263, 399-405(2018).

S. Kobayashi,Y. Shiraishi, N.Toshima, H. Furue, K.Takeishi, H. Takatsu, K.-H. Chang and L.-C. Chien, “Further studyof optical homogeneouseffects in nanoparticle embedded liquid-crystal devices,”J. Mol. Liq. 263, (2018).

S. S. Gandhi, Y. Li, D. Luo and L.-C. Chien, “Laser emission in a 3D nanoporous porous replica of amorphousblue phase III,” J. Poly. Sci.,Part B: Poly. Phys. 56, 551-557 (2018).

A. Varanytsia, G. Posnjk, U. Mur, V. Joshi, K.Darrah, I. Musevic, S. Copar and L.-C. Chien, “Topology-commanded optical propertiesof bistable electric-field-induced torons in cholesteric bubble domains,” Sci. Rep.7, 16149 (2017).

S. S. Gandhi and L.-C. Chien, “Unraveling the Mystery of the Blue Fog: Structure, Properties, and Applications of Amorphous BluePhase III,” Adv. Mater.  to 13) (2017).

A. Varanytsia and L.-C. Chien, “Command electro-optical switching of photoaligned liquid crystal on photopatterned graphene,” Sci. Rep. 7, 11778 (2017).

K.-H. Chang, A. Varanytsia and L.-C. Chien, “Electrically tunable liquid crystal lens with suppressedaxial chromatic aberration,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 111, 033504 (2017).

K.-H. Chang, V. Josi and L.-C. Chien, “Fast-switching chiral nematic liquid-crystal mode withpolymer-sustained twisted vertical alignment,”Phys.Rev. E, 95, 042701 (2017).

A.Varanytsia and L.-C. Chien, “Giant Flexoelectro-optic effect with liquid crystal dimer CB7CB,” Sci. Rep. 7, 41333 (2017).

K.-H. Chang, C. Zhang, S. Song and L.-C. Chien, “Command splay-bend switching in an optically-compensated bend cell with polymerized liquid crystal photoalignment layers,” J. Appl. Phys.121, 114901 (2017).

S. S. Gandhi, M.S. Kim, J.-Y. Hwang, L.-C. Chien, “Electro-optical memory of a nanoengineeredamorphous blue-phase-III polymer scaffold,” Adv. Mater. 28, 8998 (2016).

L. Weng, A. Varanytsia, K.-H.Chang and L.-C. Chien, “Simulation and fabrication of a fast fringe‐field switching liquid crystal with enhanced surface anchoring enabled by controlled polymer topology,” J. Soc. Info. Disp. 24, 621-627 (2016).

A. Varanytsia, L. Weng,T.-C. Lin, J. Yang and L.-C. Chien, “High-performance and low-cost aluminum zincoxide and gallium zinc oxide electrodes for liquid crystal displays,” IEEE J. Disp. Tech. 12, 1033 (2016).

A. Varanytsia and L.-C. Chien, “Bimesogen-enhanced flexoelectro-optic behavior of polymer stabilized cholesteric liquid crystal,” J. Appl. Phys. 119, 014502 (2016).

L. Weng,A. Varanytsia,S. H. Lee and L.-C. Chien, “High-efficiency and fast-switching field-induced tunable phase grating using polymer-stabilized in-plane switching liquid crystals with vertical alignment,” J. Phys. D., Appl.Phys. 49, 125504 (2016).

M. Kim and L.-C. Chien, “Topology-mediated electro-optical behaviour of a wide- temperature liquid crystalline amorphous blue phase,” Soft Matter, 11, 8013-8018 (2015).