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Presents information on a study that discovered that a cholesteric liquid crystal with negative dielectric anisotropy and with a visible wavelength selective reflection presented high memory effects when encapsulated in a polymer film. Experimental procedaure; Results and discussion; Conclusion.

Liquid crystal/polymer network composites with small amounts of photocrosslinkable cholesteric prepolymer are described. Rheological experiments are used to study the evolution of the mechanical properties of the composite material during the UV curing process. The behaviour of the complex shear modulus during the formation of the polymer network leads to a gelation-like description. Corresponding critical exponents have been proposed and discussed in the frame of percolation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]